Chapter 15

When we seek to do something worthwhile, we often compare what we are able to do with what others are doing. And if others are [...]

Humility differs from low self-esteem because the two lead us to value different, even opposite, things.  When we suffer from low self-esteem, we start thinking [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]