Bertrand Russell on Merging with the Universal

This year I've spent hours examining Gödel's intrusions into the world of the logical positivists from a variety of perspectives. And really, I've found the range of early 20th century logic, mathematics, and philosophy to be quite an enchanting rabbit hole.

This bit of clear and concise wisdom from Bertrand Russell really caught my attention this past week:

• Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river—small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.