Focus not on the pain of failing – focus on the pleasure of learning
When we fail in something important for us, we naturally feel disheartened. If we don’t process this feeling intelligently, we may quit. Failure is an [...]
Animals choose how to fulfill their bodily drives; we humans can choose whether to fulfill our bodily drives
A cow, after eating all the grass in one row in a uniformly green pasture, can choose whether to eat the grass on the left or the right. Animals are driven largely by their bodily drives. Yet, within the scope of those drives, they do have the free will to choose how to fulfill those drives.
Even if we can’t change the content of our experience, we can change its context
Sometimes people ask spiritualists, “What do you gain in this life by your spiritual practices? You too face the same problems as we do – [...]
Failure is not catastrophic – to see failure as catastrophic is catastrophic
Our mind often makes problems seem worse than what they actually are. Suppose someone fails in an exam. Their mind may tell them that their [...]
Our over-reactions reveal our sore spots
Suppose, while we are walking, our shoulder touches a wall, and we find ourselves wincing. Our over-reaction indicates that we have on our shoulder some [...]
Treat life like a movie that you don’t have to always watch
Suppose we were watching a movie and suddenly discovered that it is a horror movie filled with ghastly scenes. We would naturally stop watching it. [...]
Transcend duality by absorption in a reality higher than duality
The world is inevitably a place of duality – something that we can’t avoid just as a boat can’t avoid being moved up and down [...]
The biggest battle in life is to keep the biggest battle the biggest battle
Life is like a battle. Each day we have to overcome obstacles to achieve our goals. Among these daily battles, the biggest battle is in [...]
No problem is so dreadful and no pleasure is so wonderful that it is worth losing our inner connection with Krishna
The world offers us two main distractions: problems and pleasures. Both attract, even demand, our attention and make us forget the higher inner reality of [...]
When life makes us emotionally seasick…
Seasickness is caused by the continuous up-down movement of the ship due to the sea-waves. Similarly, when we travel through life, its ups and downs [...]