Definitions: (1) mentally clear and sound <especially the ability to anticipate and appraise the effect of one’s own actions>; rational; (2) having or showing good reason or judgment; sensible; (3) free from hurt or disease; healthy
See also: Realistic
Compatible Quality: prepared
Quotes:
• In order to be sane and adjusted as a human being, an individual must realize that he cannot know all there is to know. It is not enough to understand this limitation intellectually; the understanding must be an orderly and conditioned process, “unconscious” as well as “conscious.” Such a conditioning is essential to the balanced pursuit of knowledge of the nature of matter and life. — Alfred Elton van Vogt (1912-2000) The Players of Null A
• In the case of permanent insanity the exits to the theater have been blocked, usually because of the knowledge that the show outside is so much worse. The insane person is running a private unapproved film which he happens to like better than the current cultural one. If you want him to run the film everyone else is seeing, the solution would be to find ways to prove to him that it would be valuable to do so … Otherwise why should he get “better”? He already is better. It’s the patterns that constitute “betterness” that are at issue. From an internal point of view insanity isn’t the problem. Insanity is the solution. — Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) Lila
Reflection: Accepting reality is fine as long as everyone holds the same criteria for “reality.” The problem comes when you are presented with a false impression of reality. Slavery was explained as necessary and accepted as “good” by a certain segment of the population. War is accepted as the only solution by a large enough group of people that it takes place. A single person who sees a higher reality is in a difficult position. Truth requires they act on the higher reality, but practicality dictates they live with the facts of the prevailing reality. Embracing both is sanity.