A life imperative

Today I found a blog in which the author responds to the question, "What is the greatest imperative of your life?" I'm going to give you several excerpts from this person's little essay:

So for me, the great imperative in my life is continually returning to a state of being rather than doing. Which is an act and a process I'm broadly calling meditation.
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My approach is strictly pragmatic: if it works, it's good. You don't have to believe in anything; if you meditate, your mind becomes stronger, more still and clear, as surely as push-ups and sit-ups strengthen the body. And just like physical exercise, in order for it to work, you have to do it.
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But the most important meditation, perhaps even the point of all of the other forms of meditation I mention: learning to love, both oneself and others; learning to listen, to both oneself and others; learning to see and hear and taste and smell and fully feel this vivid dream of life, this horror show and shadow play of the world, this vast terrifying beauty, which is passing through our meditating mind at this very moment.

"In order for it to work, you have to do it." How true. And, yes, this "dream of life" is both unspeakably horrible and indescribably beautiful. And it is love that enables us to endure the reality of both.