Every ending is also a beginning
When anything good ends, we often feel sad, “Why did this have to end?” Conventional wisdom reminds us that endings are also beginnings. Expounding this [...]
Willpower is a finite resource – use it wisely
We are finite beings, and finite are all our resources, including our willpower. That our willpower is finite means that we can fight only so [...]
Spiritual progress is not all-or-nothing; material progress is all-for-nothing
All-or-nothing refers to situations where the winner gets everything and the loser, nothing. In a war, specifically the take-no-prisoners kind of confrontation that ends with [...]
What is craved within gets carved within
We sometimes feel cravings for things that we would normally never indulge in real life. Yet we entertain those cravings mentally, thinking that the mental [...]
Indiscriminate indulgence makes the impulsive compulsive
No one desires to become an addict. When people drink, they usually want to have a good time with their friends. However, each time they [...]
We can’t delete our memories, but we can choose what we remember
Some of our memories may have scarred us – memories of abuses we have suffered or allurements we have succumbed to may agitate us whenever [...]
Life is too precious to be wasted in doing perpetual post-mortem operations
When someone dies because of unknown causes, legal authorities often do a post-mortem operation to determine the cause. Similarly, in our life, when things go [...]
Comfortable misery is still misery
We living in our AC homes and offices may pity people of the past who had to work outdoors, sweating profusely under the burning hot [...]
Resign from illusion – don’t re-sign into illusion
We all have our illusory attachments because of which we succumb to self-defeating indulgences. When we realize the consequences of those indulgences, how they cause [...]
When we get out of ourselves, we find ourselves
Many people are eager to be themselves, to find and express their authentic self. This search for authenticity is good. But if not channelled properly, [...]
Our greatest power is not the power we have over others, but the power we have over ourselves
Many people hunger for power. Such power-hungry people usually define power in terms of externals, in terms of how much they can control others and [...]
Those who obsess over what is wrong overlook what is right
Some people are industrious faultfinders. Whoever they are with, they zero in on the faults of that person. Such people who obsess on the wrong [...]
Those who commit to nothing are distracted by everything
Distraction has been an ever-present bane for humanity. However, the present age is one of mass distraction. With technology and social media, news, updates and [...]
Compare yourself only with the person you were yesterday
A common human pastime is comparison: “My car is better than theirs; their house is better than mine; my phone is smarter than theirs.” Through [...]
Don’t let hindsight hinder foresight
Hindsight refers to the lessons we learn from life; it emerges from our reflectiveness to evaluate what we did and what we could have done [...]
Happiness comes not by maximizing our possessions, but by minimizing our attachments
Today’s materialistic culture makes us believe that the more possessions we have, the happier we will be. However, such “happiness” lasts only as long as [...]
Doing things efficiently is good, but doing unnecessary things efficiently isn’t
Suppose we are traveling by a flight that allows us 50 pounds luggage. We meticulously organize the things that we need to carry, placing them [...]
Those who stay upset about what they don’t have waste what they do have
Suppose a person with artistic talent craves and slaves to become an engineer. But if they just don’t get mathematics or physics and somehow struggle [...]
Bring out the best within, not the beast within
We all would like to improve ourselves, become better – and yet we sometimes act regrettably, worse than ourselves. What makes us act like that? [...]
Desires go away not by gratification or repression but by purification
Desires that we know are undesirable sometimes impel us. If repeatedly impelled, we may feel, “Let me just indulge and get it over with. At [...]
The value of what we drive doesn’t matter as much as the values that drive us
We live in a materialistic culture that determines our stature by externals such as the cars we drive, the clothes we wear and the phones [...]