Disliking ourselves is not humility
Every culture glamorizes certain models of beauty, wealth, ability. Many people compare themselves negatively with those models, deem themselves inferior and inadequate, and even start [...]
Why do good people do bad things
When people do bad things, especially if they are normally good people, then their bad actions can shock us. If we had trusted them and [...]
How can we know reality?
Suppose someone is walking on a road with their eyes blindfolded and ears plugged. If they struggled only to remove the ear plugs that blocked [...]
How to deal with our inability to resist temptation
Suppose a person is so sick as to not have the strength to lift even small objects. We won’t condemn them for being weak; we [...]
Is death the destroyer of meaning?
We often dread death because we feel that it destroys everything that gives meaning to our life. When we see death as the destroyer of [...]
Are we silencing our watchdog?
Suppose we have a watchdog guarding our house. If a suspicious-looking stranger appears, that dog would bark to alert us. But if we neglect and [...]
Why those who agitate for equality are often prone to envy
The equality of all people is enshrined as a sacred modern value. This contrasts with medieval societies where hierarchies were often rigid and upward mobility [...]
Why we are more than programmed machines
Today’s prevailing worldview, materialism, holds that we are biological robots. What we consider as our voluntary choices, it treats as mechanical results of our programming. [...]
Looking out for number one or looking at Number One?
To look out for number one is a phrase that means to act for one's own interest without caring for others. We tend to look [...]
When our repentant tears reform and when they don’t
We may shed tears of repentance when we have made some terrible mistake or acted in some grievously immoral way. Those tears can clean and [...]
How can we defend ourselves from our mind?
Our mind often speaks as the nasty, discouraging inner voice which says that we are nothing; we count for nothing; whatever we do will eventually [...]
How can we be humble without letting ourselves be trampled by others?
Humility is one of the most treasured virtues in spiritual life, but it is often seen as weakness in material life. If we are humble, [...]
Why some people think consciousness comes from the brain — and why it doesn’t
A child may think that milk comes from a bottle in the fridge or from a rack in the supermarket. We may laugh at such [...]
How attachment blinds without letting us realize that we are blinded
Suppose an aggressor attacks a person and brutally destroys their eyes. We would consider that aggressor atrocious. Shockingly, we all are attacked by a terrible [...]
The essence of karma is universal harmony, not judgmental morality
Some people oppose the idea of karma: “It is just one among many differing systems of morality. These systems simply make those who follow it [...]
Knowledge expands the avenues available for us to address those problems
Suppose someone is coughing. If they have no medical knowledge, they might just try to suppress their cough, which might make the disease worse. A [...]
To help the distressed, address both their distress’ immediate cause and remote cause
Suppose a doctor encounters a patient suffering from alcoholism and condemns that patient, “You are a wretched drinker; you deserve to suffer.” That would be [...]
Present yourself in the present to the One who is always present
We live in an uncertain world where sudden and severe changes can fill us with fear, even panic. If we get our sense of confidence [...]
To feel small can be disempowering, to feel small in God’s presence is empowering
Suppose we walk on the streets of a giant metropolis, surrounded by huge skyscrapers, thousands of passers-by and hundreds of cars. We may feel small, [...]
If we are defeated by temptation, it doesn’t mean we can’t win — it just means we can’t win alone
Suppose we resolve to reject a temptation, but fail, and fail repeatedly. We may become disheartened thinking, “I can never win against this temptation.” Our [...]
Our individuality is defined not by what we wear, but by what we hold dear
We live in an age that urges us to ‘be yourself’. And such a call to affirm our individuality can be good, provided it is [...]