Don’t care so much for desire that it doesn’t care for the desirer
Suppose a person climbs on a horse, but the horse goes wild, endangering the rider. Something similar happens to us when we climb on the [...]
To gain satisfaction, replace expectation with appreciation
Our satisfaction is often inversely proportional to our expectation. Suppose we go for a feast expecting a particular delicacy. If it is not included in [...]
Why long for a pleasure that never stays for long?
We are all by nature pleasure-seeking. And the world promises us pleasure in so many ways. The most hyped among all these worldly pleasures are [...]
Don’t crave the feast in others’ plates – savor the feast in yours
Suppose we were invited to a feast in which everyone had slightly different delicacies on their plates. Suppose further that we got so caught in [...]
The search for happiness is often the source of the greatest unhappiness
The very things we seek happiness in often sentence us to unhappiness. A pervasive yet tragic example is of addicts. Food addicts can’t live without [...]
Happiness comes not by collecting the material, but by recollecting the spiritual
We live in a materialistic culture that aggressively propagates the notion that we will become happy by gaining more and more material things. Being seduced [...]
The best way to deal with temptation is to not deal with it
Temptation is unavoidable as long as we exist in material existence, just as salespeople are unavoidable when we live in a commercialized economy. When [...]
We can’t avoid perceiving sense objects, but we can avoid pursuing them
The culture assaults our senses with perceptions of tempting sense objects and we often can’t avoid those perceptions. How then can we protect ourselves from [...]
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 [...]
Money talks – and walks away as it is talking
“Money talks” is an idiomatic way of stating that those who show money are taken seriously – others respect them and hasten to do their [...]
The source of misery is not frustration of desire, but domination by desire
When we don’t get something that we want and feel miserable, we attribute that misery to the frustration of our desire. But might such an [...]
The vain live in vain
Those who live under the illusion that they don’t need God are from the spiritual perspective vain or arrogant. Actually, we all need God, at [...]
Biological hunger is need, but sensual hunger is greed
Biological hunger refers to the body’s call for food, whereas sensual hunger refers to the senses’ craving for sense objects. The Bhagavad-gita (02.59: niraaharasya) uses [...]
Don’t let being well-off come in the way of being well
In today’s materialistic culture, being well-off is enthroned as life’s primary, if not only, goal. The pressure on us to accumulate the trappings of success [...]
Count your blessings – and make your blessings count
Suppose patients get the right medicine, but don’t value it. Or suppose they value it but don’t take it. Either way, they continue suffering. These [...]