Desire to be worshipped for your goodness, and your worshippers will worship evil. Desire the power to fix the world, and you will divide it with enemies of your own making. Desire wealth, and you will never have enough. Desire victory, and you will lose to the fear of defeat. Desire control, and you will be controlled by your desire. Desire freedom, and you will imprison yourself within the pursuit of it. Desire peace, and you will war against those that disturb it. Desire meaning, and you will chase after illusions of your own making. Desire to be loved, and you will perceive its absence everywhere you look.

Above all, free yourself from desire.

A world without prejudice—a world of true compassion and understanding—is not one where people censor themselves out of fear, but one where open expression is expected, where disagreement is met with curiosity rather than hostility. It is a world in which disagreement is not a threat but an opportunity to grow, where people engage with ideas in good faith rather than suppressing them. In such a world, no one hides their beliefs, not because they are universally accepted, but because they are met with this understanding.

Habits we wish to avoid can easily form with a “this is the last time” mentality. When we perceive a future famine, we become gluttonous, not only with food, but with any vice or form of addiction. It is far more sustainable to take incremental steps away from a bad behavior or toward a good behavior. We each have a finite amount of willpower that grows as it is exercised. Aim for progress, not perfection.

Yes, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. But if once you have been given it, you are greedy and continue asking for more, the giver will take it back. If you are an exceptionally greedy son, the giver will say to themselves, “This is no progeny of mine. I will send him to someone that has rotten offerings to give, for he does not know the value of what has been given.” Only once you have fully utilized a gift, found satisfaction, and remained thankful, might the giver consider bestowing something more. But keep your eyes away from what else they may have, or they are likely to deem you unworthy of their storehouse.

Emotions shape our thoughts.

Thoughts shape our beliefs.

Beliefs shape our emotions.

Emotions shape our beliefs.

Beliefs shape our thoughts.

Thoughts shape our emotions.

As I peer through my glasses, I catch but a fleeting glimpse of my own eyes and wonder who it is that stares back at me. 

Who is the seer of things seen? Who is the perceiver of things perceived? Who is the hearer of things heard?

Am I naught but all that is contained within the bounds of consciousness? Am I merely consciousness confined within the void of nothingness? Or am I something beyond all that consciousness contains?

The breadth of my self is bound—fettered by concept and form. Yet the breadth of my Self is boundless—permeable, impermeable, and formless.

I think, therefore I am. No. I am, because I am. No. I simply am.

You can punch and kick, scream and cry, argue and beg; men will answer in kind, but the universe will answer with silence. Keep fighting, and you will be fought. Keep wanting, and you will be dissatisfied. Keep clinging, and you will be dragged. Some believe they witness the wicked going unpunished. Be certain of nothing more than this: whatever you consume will fill you, and whatever you send out will return to you. The measure you measure out will be measured out to you. Be it by God, gods, a universal law, or the labor of your own hands, your outer reality is as bound by your inner reality as your inner reality is by your outer reality.

Our eyes must open to see the light. Truth is more likely to rest within the intersection of multiple ideologies than to be confined to a single framework.

The enemy of my enemy is not my friend by their opposition to my enemy. The friend of my enemy is not my enemy by their friendship with my enemy. I am not an enemy of my enemy by their rivalry with me. 

   The friend of my enemy is my brother, the enemy of my enemy is my brother, even my enemy is my brother. Some may see me as their enemy, but I will make myself an enemy to no one. 

   What virtue—to measure out compassion only to those who show affection for you! Few could need our love more than those with hate in their heart.

Where are the saints,

Where are the sinners,

I’ve only found people,

Not losers or winners.

We are not free,

We are all bound,

By time and space,

By gravity and ground.

Though none are perfect,

We’re freed by love,

By forgiveness, compassion,

Maybe something above.

Whatever it is,

It won’t divide me,

From the rest of man,

Who shares that something inside me.

Rest assured, the knowledge of educated skeptics who question every claim is likely the most accurate available. Yet, in their unwillingness to entertain the unfalsifiable, they are likely to deprive themselves of the wisdom that nurtures a truly fulfilling life.

I want to do all the good I can within my lifetime. I won’t do all of it, but when I fail, let it be due to my own ignorance, never my volition to better my nature.

Whenever our eyes meet with another soul’s, their eyes are looking back trying to determine if our’s exhibit judgment or love. Unburden them. Be of the heart and mind to never leave them guessing.

Because external things, such as wealth, power, career, fame, body, culture, and property are easily helped or harmed by circumstances outside of our control, it cannot be by these things that we understand others, but by their response to these things. It cannot be by these things that we define ourselves, but by our response to these things. And it should not be these things which are external to us that we prioritize the pursuit of, but our control over our reactions and impressions of these things.

Your life is only worth the experience contained within it. If you’re not having a good experience, seek alternative experiences, or better yet, learn how to experience differently. Even if you feel beholden to responsibility, you are of little help to those you care about if you’re not capable of bringing light to their lives. It is a fate worse than death to suffer a life you don’t enjoy.

What we believe largely determines what we do. If we wish to do good, we must only harbor beliefs which prioritize that imperative. We might think we believe that love should guide every action, but how often are we acting out of self preservation? Not saying what we should, because it’s uncomfortable or unconventional? Not helping someone, because it might be dangerous or simply take our time? How well rooted is the seed of your belief in that case? And what weeds might be choking what you wish would blossom?

If you are going to do what you believe in, you will face obstacles, you will face danger, you be ridiculed and opposed, you will undergo pain, you will work twice as hard for inadequate compensation, but more than anything you will face yourself and your insufferable narrator. Don’t do what you believe in, however, and your heart will darken as your spirit dies; you are as good as dead.

If you’re not progressing, you’re regressing. If you’re not busy forming yourself, you’re either deforming or someone else is forming you. Effort is costly, but a lack of effort is far more so.

A fancy object is captivating at first glance, but it will likely never grab your attention the same way in the future. As days go by with it in your possession, your appreciation for it will slowly decline, and desire will shift itself toward some new fascination. If we could learn to see with new eyes though, we could retain a childlike fascination with things. If we began seeing everything again for the first time, we would remain interested in the present and satisfied with only our basic needs met. 

What are they doing? What are they saying? What are they thinking? 

Stop. 

Am I here in this moment? Are my thoughts intentional and good right now? Am I doing good right now? Is love in my heart right now?

We are like mirrors, taking on the qualities of the things we hold in reflection. We judge ourselves in relation to each other, but we are only reflections of reflections, without perspective for the original picture we warp and distort.

Frivolous pursuits steal our time away from learning how to live. In the end, it will be the relationships you formed and the quality of your experiences that you reflect on. Can a life be well lived, if we have spent more time entertaining ourselves with a screen than nurturing our relationships and developing ourselves? Consider how you spend each moment.

Don’t retreat to the mountains to escape your fellow man. Retreat to the mountains to become the man your fellow needs.

If you’re tempted to indulge, think long term, not short term. If you’re going to eat, don’t think of how it will taste, think of how it will make you feel and of the guilt you might carry away. Focus on the satisfaction of overcoming desire, not on satisfying the desire itself.

If someone met God and came back with the truth, they would be deemed insane. If someone met God and came back with metaphors and parables, they could set the foundation for a new religion. If someone met God and told no one, but brought back the wisdom to save us from ourselves, few would notice, and only a select few could be bothered to do what was necessary.

We’re biased toward interpreting symptoms of physical decline as symptoms of age. It takes the control away from us, and makes us feel alleviated of the responsibility we have toward our bodies. But few of us experience what our body feels like after eating and exercising the way we should consistently, and even fewer have the observational powers to discern the incremental change. Those who do, however, will tell you they feel far older when they live less than optimally.

We don’t walk the country because we think nothing bad might happen, we walk the country because losing your life to fear is far worse than dying once you’ve already lived.

We are all simple compared to the brightest among us, and even they contest the true nature of reality among themselves. They struggle to understand their fellow man. They struggle to find contentment and live fulfilled lives. If we explore the reaches of our ignorance by honestly evaluating what we know about something compared to all the information there likely is to know about it, we can happily proclaim, “I don’t know,” and stop so many of our problems where they start.

If you keep telling yourself, “I am the way I am,” you won’t be able to do anything about the way you are.

What would you think of yourself, if you were shown all the opportunities you missed to show kindness, compassion, and love? If you start making the choices that would allow you to live without that regret, you will start to desire to make those choices instead.

Openness is what allows us to experience more of this big beautiful life, and through that experience gain understanding. Everybody closes off after a certain number of exposures to something, but many people close themselves off to something at first glance, and most of us close ourselves off before we are able to develop the understanding necessary to know it isn’t for us. We grow increasingly open as we develop appreciation for more things which require repeated exposure and especially skill.

Looking back at a month at home, there is little to look back on. Looking back at a month on the walk, so much has occurred I’ve changed twice over and can’t even remember all that led to this new person in the mirror. It’s not that we need to have a big adventure, but live every day as an adventure.

We are prone to confusing conformity with maturity. A mature person must conform in certain ways to work optimally with others, but first they evaluate each action by its own merit, measuring it against the greatest good. Exceptionally mature people will likely do a few exceptionally unconventional things.

At the pinnacle of presence rests eternity.

I’m most likely to do what I have to do and less likely to do what I ought to do. By manufacturing necessity, I will increase my likelihood of accomplishing what I ought to.

The quantity and quality of our experiences, along with the degree to which we observe and introspect, will determine the capacity for change we perceive within ourselves and the path we take there.

Habits we wish to avoid can easily form with a “this is the last time” mentality. When we perceive a future famine, we become gluttonous, not only with food, but with any vice or form of addiction. It is far more sustainable to take incremental steps away from a bad behavior or toward a good behavior. We each have a finite amount of willpower that grows as it is exercised.

Things are dying every day to keep me alive. My existence comes at the expense of other life, and balancing the cost would mean spending each moment intentionally, in the service of other living things. The very least I can do is implement progressive steps toward that ideal.

Learning is the beginning of all personal growth. Not only must we learn how to grow, but we must learn the different ways we are capable of growing. And reading might be the best way of capturing the kind of complex information that will lead to change as efficiently as possible.

The things which enter our awareness shape both us and our image of the world. If we better control what enters by learning how to direct attention and training our attention’s capacity, we can shape ourselves and our views intentionally, and determine what enters according to its utility.

We worry about losing time when losing experience should be seen as the cause for concern. It is that concern that will cause us to utilize our time wisely, regardless of what we are allotted in the end.

There’s more to learn about your own mind than even the universe, for it contains the concepts and interpretations which result from the information we process about the world around us. You will never truly know anything until you know yourself.

We are all actors. Even if it is to be perceived as kind and honest, if we act to be seen a certain way, we are performing as an actor. Because we all have a sense of identity which remains fixed in mind with nearly every interaction, we are “playing a role,” though usually the role of ourselves. If we remind ourselves of this, we can step further outside of ourselves and act more intentionally, spontaneously, and maybe even become a little more playful.

Simplicity of want and opinion brings tranquility of mind and greater harmony with our fellow man. Simplify your life and you will simplify yourself.

The path of least resistance will not lead us to our best selves. We can’t know what we are capable of without the conditions and conditioning needed to find out.

It’s easier to be negative than positive, rude than kind, and selfish than selfless. It’s harder to concern ourselves with others, but it is also more punishing not to. Negative traits pollute our lives with their ramifications, and there is no fulfillment found in any of them.

Imagine a civilization without sight creating the technology to see. Now imagine our civilization creating the technology to perceive in an entirely new way. Now imagine how many ways there might be to perceive and what greater differences there might be between our own perceptions.

I was one of the lucky few in the world to be born at the right place and time to know God and morals? There’s no reason to believe I was born into truth and right when most of the world disagrees with me. Question everything.

How much less calamitous our worldview would be, if we knew only of the things actually affecting us. How much less we would believe we need, if we didn’t have so much in front of us. How much more innocent we would be, if we never found deceit. Be careful what those eyes see and ears hear, information creates our reality.

Why pride ourselves on the individuals we are? Our lives are nothing without each other, and there is greater strength and fulfillment together. It is what we are for each other, with each other, and to each other that matters.

If I were to be plucked from this world right now, I would rather be caught doing something for someone else than enjoying anything selfishly.

We are fitted with greater will and determination for causes bigger than ourselves. People can be far more motivated to save the world than change themselves, yet it is changing ourselves that saves the world.

Our judgements against one another are far harsher than they would be if some other object were the cause of them. Stub your toe on a rock and you move on with your day, but someone steps on your toe and it’s, “What is the matter with them? Why weren’t they paying attention?” when they could have been as blind to you as the rock. We are biased against one another with greater expectations, but those expectations lead us to judge and treat our fellows worse than we would an inanimate object or an animal. Let’s assume the best intentions, expect nothing, and be pleasantly surprised when people have a positive impact.

There is less to undermine virtue than there is to undermine hedonism. Though one might have more proponents and followers, the other is self-contained and can stand as an island to itself. Virtue is inexhaustible and unexploitable; to act virtuously will always be the right way to respond.

Experience often comes at the cost of safety, and the safest life would be far different from the most experiential life. Greater safety does not equate to more happiness. Statistical safety is logistical tyranny, and safety can constrict happiness as easily as boost it.

Hatred is never useful for making a better world, it is a measure of suffering portioned out to all those unwilling to let go. If you can’t find love for your worst enemy, you are not yet the person your world needs.

There is joy to be found for every moment. Against all probability, you are here, now, existing. Maybe everything is going wrong right now, but what if you were only alive for this moment? What would you give just to experience this moment of existence? What would any moment of experience be worth to you if it’s all you got? We fuss and worry over the things happening within our experience as if it would be better to die, when we all would give anything to exist for but a moment in this colorful consciousness as only a fly on the wall to the woes of the world.

Desire is the root of motivation. We each have a degree of desire following us around at all times, attaching itself to those things it finds captivating. If you aren’t motivated to be productive, your desire is likely fixed elsewhere, such as vice. While training attention to fix it at will is the ultimate goal, repositioning desire is sometimes as simple as suffering through those things you don’t want to do until you want to do them.

Your mind is like the ocean, man is ready to shoot for the stars before he even knows what’s under the surface of his own planet.

What is the cost of expressing love, and why do we withhold it from people we don’t know? Who does it help to treat strangers with suspicion and reservation? Love gives back to those who show it, and wily people will try to get what they want either way, while a barrier is formed between you and others. In a sea of love, the wily one themselves might change, having been given what they needed through the kindness of others. Instead of starting everyone off in the negative, let’s develop a common love of man, and show it to everyone around us.

Your mind is a reservoir for the reason and imagination it naturally produces, but it’s easily filled with external sources, conditioning, and noise. As it fills, its inborn resources sink to the bottom, and if you wish to reach them, you will either have to dive deep, or empty it of the refuse displacing what is useful.

Because you are relegated to your own separate consciousness, because you cant escape yourself to peer into your external reality, you can never truly “know” anything. You are always confined to likelihood, an interpretation formed by concepts and perception—mental constructs—not reality. Bring this recognition to every conversation, opinion, and judgment as your wellspring for humility.

I can do more, I can reach more, I can teach more. There is truth left unspoken, there are people left untouched, there is a world in need of change, yet solutions aren’t enough. The greatest obstacle remains, motivating people to care.

Wisdom is not a result of age, it is the result of experience processed with comprehension. Time is not a measure of how much a person experiences, and an abundance of experience is not indicative of comprehension. Learn, introspect, change, and explore, if you wish to become wise.

First learn to be present. You can spend your time getting a degree, a house, a family, and working toward accomplishments you find meaning in, but what good is a fulfilling job or a loving family if you can’t cherish the moment? Time can be lost to an occupied mind regardless of its accomplishments. Only once you learn to be pleased with a single blade of grass, or the sound of the wind, and feel at peace with your existence, will you be able to fully appreciate these other things.

Imagine spending all day looking at the most negative information you could find, wars, crime, pollution, bigotry, and poverty. How would you feel? Now imagine spending all day looking at the most positive information you could find, stories of heroism, charity, random acts of kindness and love. Finally, imagine spending a whole month consuming all of one or the other and how you would come out the other side. 

   Every increment from negative to positive is developing your opinion of the world and altering your emotional state. Don’t consume without your future psychology in mind.

What would you pay to be able to see twice as much with the same eyes? Hear twice as much? Feel twice as much? Smell twice as much? What is it worth to you to perceive reality twice as clearly as those around you? Your mind is capable of this, but the price is effort. 

   We’ve all been through conversations we didn’t absorb, or passed by something in plain sight multiple times that we didn’t see until someone pointed it out. Much of this is due to not being present, having our mental resources fixed on thought instead of the here and now. We can experience more, if we can learn to be present. Those of us who have felt the extremes of both a terribly hijacked mind and a rigorously trained mind will attest that the difference between the two is a far greater chasm than those of the captive mind ever imagine. It is like trying to tell a color blind person what they are missing out on. Don’t miss out. Put in the effort.

We know we live in a world of interdependence. Plants need nutrients from the soil, animals need nutrients from the plants, both plants and animals die and decay into the nutrients they consume. Likewise, your mind lives in interdependence with the world. You become like your environment, and your environment becomes like you.

Comfort isn’t contentment. The fulfillment of want only trains the habit of pursuing want, but want is dissatisfaction with our current circumstance and a degree of suffering. Contentment won’t come through pleasure, control, or comfort. Contentment comes from letting go of want and our attachment to these things.

Atheist, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim—It doesn’t matter to know why love matters. It matters to know it does, it matters to recognize it, and learn how to nurture it.

If we maintain love and acceptance, and someone in our life doesn’t reciprocate, it’s time to move on or risk being changed for the worse. We don’t owe anyone our quality of mind, and love isn’t hard to come by. Love is there for those who love. Acceptance isn’t hard to come by. Those who judge less are less judged.

We can be dragged along by life, telling ourselves we’re strong for the things we’ve gone through, or we can face our obstacles with self improvement in mind, intentionally handling each circumstance in the most optimal way we can think of, truly becoming stronger.

Judgments about one another are not always so conspicuous as to be moral judgments or worthiness judgments. Judgments come in the form of concepts we apply to each other, such as identity. We say to ourselves, they are this kind of person or that kind of person. But when we do this, we deny our capacity for change, when we are actually changing with every moment and every experience. Friends, family, and a society that treated everyone with this consideration would be an aid and support to self improvement, rehabilitation, and rehabituation. Let’s not box each other in. Whether it’s two months of a perfect routine or one dramatic experience, we can emerge anew.

Contentment isn’t found in asceticism, self denial, or hedonism, self indulgence. Both are clinging. Contentment is found by touching the two extremes, getting to know our mind through varied experience, and training perspective accordingly. It is good to fast, and it is good to feast, but we must undergo one to fully experience the other.

We change each other with every moment we spend together. Those who change you change others through you, and those you change will likewise change others. Over the course of a thousand years, the little life you lived will have impacted the whole of humanity. Be careful of your association, change intentionally, and be the change people need, not the change they're looking for.

This property does not belong to me, these clothes do not belong to me, these words do not belong to me, this mind does not belong to me, I do not belong to me, but everyone belongs, and I belong to everyone.

Without seeing clearly, we cannot properly see how to fix a problem. Lack of clarity might even cause us to see problems that aren’t there. You have to change the inside to change the outside, you have to improve yourself to improve the world, and you need the right perspective to see how to shape perspective.

You always give me what I need when I do what I need to for you. You let me experience all I can bear before you lift me up. You reach the edge of my vision before drawing my attention back to you. You’re all I can see, but I don’t even notice you. I can feel you, but I can never touch you. You are neither there, nor are you not there. Who are you?

We don’t have to identify with something to find good in it. There is good in most ideologies, belief systems, and cultures that we should be looking for, or we will never know what wisdom inspired so many. Let us be guided by reason, not identification.

What ratio of good action to bad action makes a good person? If goodness isn’t determined by actions, but intentions, what if someone paves the road to hell with good intentions? If it is some combination of action and intention, it is still the unanswerable question of what ratio makes a good person. Maybe we should rethink our labels and strive to free ourselves from such judgments, if we wish to be “good people.”

We suffer opinions, we suffer expectations, we suffer ruminations. With no benefit, we are clinging to things outside of our control, and the only solution is to let go. If we don’t know how, we should get busy learning, because our time is wasting away while death draws nearer.

We should not think of it as time we are trading, but experience. Be sure the experience you’re receiving is worth the potential experiences you’re exchanging it for.

The conventional approach to creating a harmonious people focuses on the external in an attempt to make us all alike. But there is an alternative, becoming alike in non-attachment, love, and acceptance of the things which make us different.

Love is expressed in many forms which appear contrary to its nature, often making it difficult to identify. Understanding someone means love might not be expressed the same for two different people, even if the love measures equally for each. Love might come in the form of distance, criticism, or even manipulation. If you don’t think this is true, imagine how your love might manifest itself when dealing with an addict or talking a loved one off a ledge. Let love motivate us to work with reality in the most beneficial way, regardless of how that love appears, and keep our eyes open for love as the motive for seemingly unloving actions.

What can one soul do to change the world? More than the world would like you to know. Light is attractive and draws us out from darkness. Let us be beacons of virtue, positivity, and love. If put out in the open, a lonely candle can light a room, and its single flame can ignite the flames of many more.

Our disposition and feelings spread like a virus. Even if your opinion doesn’t change, you can be infected with the emotion of the opposition. We can develop immunity, however, by practicing detachment and by reframing our perspective. This should be done, not with ourselves in mind, but with a better world in mind. Love your enemies, it is transmissible.

Hardship comes for each of us, so ready your expectations for all potential hardship. Nothing in this world truly belongs to you. If you remain ready to let go, you will free yourself from one of our greatest sources of suffering, clinging to what can easily be taken from you.

It requires work to put everything on the table and examine it under a microscope, but without guarding against it, we devolve into bias, judgment, and complacency. Every moment we should be thinking about how we’re thinking, thinking of how we could perceive what we’re perceiving differently, and thinking of the optimal way to do what we’re doing; In that order. As you fall away from intentionality, seek love for motivation.

Many of the truths we readily accept are not put to use when relevant. We have a blind eye turned to ourselves. Most of us know there is far more we don’t know than we do know, most of us know our experience is filtered through a subjective lense, most of us agree it is wise and virtuous to withhold judgment, but when someone says something we disagree with we fail to pause and reflect. Searching quickly for our rebuttal, we already begin negatively interpreting their character. Since one is blind, keep both eyes on yourself.

Many morals lead people to demonize, ostracize, exile, or even murder those they perceive to be immoral. We need something which supersedes our concepts and interpretations, and that is love. True love will not lead us to fight our enemies, but to open mindedness, understanding, and turning the other cheek.

   Love never leads to selfish action, but selfless action. Love will never lead us to fight for ourselves; If love will do anything, it will motivate us to find better solutions.

The only thing we can be sure we’re right about is that we’re going to be wrong. Moral condemnation is not ours to give, love is.

Well rooted trees grow toward the light. 

   If someone is critical, ask yourself, “is this true, and how is it useful?” If it’s true regarding something within your control, you have gained truth and can change for the better. If it’s true regarding something outside of your control, it’s an opportunity to develop acceptance and mental fortitude. 

   If it’s untrue, it’s an opportunity to challenge your beliefs and become better at representing them. If it’s a useless falsehood, it’s still an opportunity to learn tranquility of mind and develop mental fortitude. You never have to be offended.

Love is wholly joyful and free from distress, it’s attachment which isn’t. We associate and confuse the two, because they are often entangled and likely to grow simultaneously, but it is possible to strengthen one and temper the other.

Our perspective begins when something external reaches our physical senses, then those sensations are filtered through a conditioned mind with genetic predispositions, from which there results some emotional response, and then the thinking mind attempts to analyze the data and respond appropriately. But if we want an appropriate response, we have to hold this process close to heart. With different eyes it would be seen differently, with different genes we would process it differently, with a different culture we would think and feel differently.

Anger is like a fire kindled by the fuel of attention. If you want to put it out, stop tending the flame, and direct your attention elsewhere.

We all retain traits common to humankind, such as love, desire, and suffering. These are the root to all their outward manifestations, such as love of self, greed, and hatred for those we believe are a source of suffering. If we can find our way back to the root, we can find common ground and bring forth healthier characteristics in those we might have otherwise considered evil.

We are like a camera. We see what we direct our attention toward, and our perspective is shaped by the framing of those things. According to the vantage point, small things seem large, large things seem small, and some things might appear entirely different than they really are.

If we live the most deeply introspective life in observation of the mind, no outside information is necessary for the purest wisdom. We learn what is most important in life, how to find contentment, and how to be our best selves from within. Though other sources can be used to shortcut and bolster our findings, much of it can confuse the process, and it takes a mind which is already aware to discern which information is valid or useful.

Belief leads to action, and love frames the right perspective. We don’t choose to believe something, just as we don’t decide to love someone; Belief and love are both emotional states of being. However, through different efforts we can instill love and inculcate belief. Therefore, if we inculcate a belief in love, we will act according to the right perspective.

We often try to instill contentment by reaching goals, ensuring our comfort, or seeking pleasure, but contentment is already there. It’s something that we find after shedding layers of our internal experience, such as desire, and you don’t need anything external to do that.

Attachment is a hindrance. If you’re attached to your things, you’re likely to spend time protecting them rather than using them. If you’re attached to yourself, you will seek to protect yourself, and you will not fully experience life because of identity, preference, and a fear of dying.

The intellectual who prioritizes study might one day wake up to realize they have worked against the path to contentment, while the child who lacks their conditioning remains more present and devoid of the distinctions which contribute to the learner’s suffering. 

Every moment of existence we are engaged in a battle for the soul of the world. With the outward ripple of not only every action, but every thought, keeping our attention on authenticity, sincerity, and love will guide us in the best direction.

We can all find contentment and love one another, if we only do the things necessary to train the right perspective for it.

We acclimate to everything, so if we acclimate to pleasure, comfort, and control, we will be unhappy when we lack those luxuries. Regularly reacclimate yourself to discomfort, little, and uncertainty, and you will be more content in every circumstance.

To know self sacrifice as the greatest form of love, and love as our only salvation, is all we need to know what to do.

We become like the things we give our attention to. Real strength is remaining positive amidst a sea of negativity and welcoming in a world working to divide us.

Overstimulation stifles imagination. New ideas only have room to spring forth in vacant space.

Opinion is preference for a position between poles. Hot and cold, wealthy and poor, left and right, religious or irreligious, dead or alive don’t exist without relation to one another, and you can always use the pole you disfavor to be grateful for the pole you favor. Don’t be weighed down by opinion. I’m happy for this cold, so that I can appreciate the warmth I’ve experienced and the warmth to come.

Attaining what you desire won’t satisfy desire. Desire remains and fixes your attention on a new object of desire. You can only starve it.

So many of us are afraid to be alone in silence with ourselves. If you’re bad company to yourself, you won’t be good company to other people.

Negative people are not “taught a lesson” by responding negatively to them. The world is reciprocal. Hatred does not stop hatred, love replaces hatred.

Besides what’s physically forced on you, everything is self imposed. Even living is a choice. Embrace the life you’ve chosen or change it.

The wise ask, “What is the best interpretation of this?” The sage asks, “Why do I believe I need an opinion?”

Don’t measure against the way things are, but the way things could be. Thinking about the best way to say something gets you closer to the right words, thinking about the best way to react gets you closer to the right actions, and thinking about the best way life can be lived gets you closer to a life well lived.

Repetition regulates the voice of conscience. Do hurtful things often, and you won’t find them as indecent. But turn away from selfish acts toward love, and you will strengthen the sound of conscience’s voice.

Wanting to be loved by many makes you less lovable, and making yourself into what you think people want will not make you what people want. Just be genuine.

What you can’t handle takes you in death. If you’re alive, you’ve been given something to bear.

Grow in love with someone and they grow prettier. Grow to hate someone and they grow uglier. Our perceptions are shaped by the thoughts that we think.

With regard to self improvement, it is useful to view your self as the amalgam of all external influences that is produced after those influences are filtered through your genetic predispositions and senses.

Reaching for control leads to discontentment, since there is always more control to reach for. Letting go of control leads to contentment.

Constantly ask yourself, if I died in this next moment, would I be happy with how I’m spending this moment? Let death remind you of what’s worth caring about and what’s worth letting go of. Let it dissolve the little stresses. Let it prioritize your time and organize your mind.

Fame means nothing. Reach far enough into the future and every name dies. Being loving means something. Love perpetuates love.

How will you ever become “that kind of person,” if you’ve already decided you’re, “this kind of person?”

Past and future only exist in thought, while the present is all that is ever really here. It is useful to consider them as far as that allows you to maintain a lack of suffering in the present, but never so far as to create suffering through the expectation of future suffering or rumination on past suffering.

I have not expressed the amount of love I could have expressed, I have not been the light I could have been, I don’t get to live it all over again, and I could die tomorrow; I must be good today.

The couple that changes together stays together.

Live ready to answer what it all was for when your end comes.

If you want to change the government, corporations, and society, you won’t do it with legislation and policy; those can always be manipulated by power and wealth. You have to change hearts. You have to make a world in which the people’s beliefs will not allow them to prioritize money over morals or themselves over others.

You don’t have to identify with negative character traits. To say, “I am picky,” or, “I am an angry person,” reinforces those qualities. You can acknowledge that you experience pickiness or anger, but recognize your capacity to change.

Thought patterns become habitual, and you can become habituated to negative or positive thinking. Like other other habits, the people you’re around will either support your habit or support breaking your habit. Association leads to habituation.

It is too often overlooked that love is cultivated. It is not enough to love what you are inclined to love when you can shape your mind so as to nurture love. Since you can learn to love, work to love everybody.

It would be tormenting to know everything. Much knowledge leads to fear, sadness, or judgment. Don’t look to learn just anything, learn what’s worth learning.

The greatest expression of love is self sacrifice, and this is what makes love the most powerful force in the world. Selfless love is undefeatable, for there is no desire to entice, no judgment to discriminate, and no self to motivate against it.

Thought responds to our environment. Some thoughts will only manifest while you’re alone. Some thoughts will only manifest in the company of others. Music, nature, and aesthetics will all contribute to the thoughts we manifest. Regulate thought by regulating your surroundings.

Lean into discomfort. Muscles grow stronger, and so does the mind. Does something make you anxious, nervous or scared? Face it repeatedly, and fear dissolves.

Don’t sell your peace of mind. There are many little things which weigh the conscience down: prioritizing profit, policies, white lies. How would only doing good feel? Obedience and money will never bring the joy of a clear conscience and happy heart.

It is possible not to have an opinion. Opinions lead to disharmony, so with every opinion ask yourself, “Is this opinion improving my life and the lives of those around me?” Fewer opinions are useful than not. Let go of useless opinions.

Hope no one was naughty, and everyone nice

It’s not alright to be haughty, ego is vice

Whether wealthy or poor, presents are stuff

In desiring more, nothing’s enough

Better to give than receive, you get what you need

You train selfless action, not desire and greed

So turn attention to others, and keep love handy

Not just sisters and brothers, the world is your family

Refining your taste increases your capacity for suffering. Becoming pickier means becoming dissatisfied more easily. If you were truly present, you would realize it’s all spectacular.

We do not measure the value of life by its intelligence, desire, or control. In spite of spending our lives developing those qualities, we value other qualities more. The lives of children are considered especially sacred. Children are curious, simple, innocent, and malleable. Be childlike.

To overcome the fear of death you must overcome the love of self. To do that you must experience the peace of selflessness.

You can’t be bought if your desire for material doesn’t supersede your desire for virtue, so work to regulate desire.

Nothing you possess can be taken out of this world with you, so spend wisely. And always be ready to return what was lent the moment the giver calls for it.

Before learning anything else, learn how the mind works. Through that you learn how to learn and what things are worth learning.

You can find love for anyone if you can learn to empathize with them, and that requires knowing yourself. The seed of every evil and every good is rooted in each of us.

If you knew you were going to die in a moment, you would savor this very moment. But you could die at any moment, so savor every moment.

It’s not just that goodness is out there, but that we must learn to see good, and be good to receive good.

Wisdom is knowledge understood without bias and utilized with intent.

Better to love and be loved by no one than to be loved by everyone but incapable of love.

To a proper perspective no obstacle is undesirable. Even a negative perspective is an opportunity to learn how to shape your perspective for times to come. Unless it kills you, everything is an opportunity for growth.

If you can’t exist without other people, animals, or even insects, you can’t be the most important thing. There is no reason to go on prioritizing yourself as number one. You will be cared for if you attend to others, not yourself.

A seed doesn’t necessarily need to take root. Enough seeds will form a mountain for someone to move.

What was the opinion of Catholics and Protestants who went to war against each other? What was the worldview from within the Nazi party? If most people think they’re trying to make the world a better place, how do we judge right from wrong? Judgements don’t need to be formed, love does.

Blind people are often thought to have better hearing. A blind person doesn’t have superior ear drums, but has more of their attention placed on sound. Their brain actually adapts to boost other senses. This isn’t only because they’re blind. Studies show that exercising attention grows gray matter. If we can direct attention, we can experience more of what we want to experience and get better at experiencing it. Like a blind person, how much more vibrant could other senses be if our attention wasn’t always hijacked by our thoughts?

Like a gem buried among the rocks, when you catch just a glimmer of truth you must race toward it, tossing aside every piece of rubble covering over it.

One real relationship is worth more than a thousand disingenuous ones. Your time is limited. Put it toward those which matter.

Stop noting what you do right as a means of excusing future indulgence.

You most often measure against what is, and it is better to train your references toward what could be. Thinking about the optimal way something can be said leads to right words, and thinking about the best way life can be lived leads to right action.

What is the sound of the voice in your head? If it doesn't have any actual sound, what is its nature? Like all mental constructs it is amorphous and indiscernible. Observe the true essence of your conceptions and it will be easier to let go of those which impede happiness such as preference.

Attachment is an impediment to action. If you attach yourself to things, you are more likely to spend time protecting them than using them. If you attach yourself to staying alive, you will not explore life because of a fear of dying. If you attach yourself to another person, you will prevent them from living because of fear that they may die. 

Better to know how to be content than to know everything but that.

Routine is the fast track to accomplishment, but it is also the death of spontaneity. Attain variety by restricting the accomplishments you desire to those which result from spontaneity.

What you can’t handle takes you in death. If you’re alive, you’ve been given something to bear. 

Appropriate action for the present is the solvent for all insoluble plans.

If you push the world toward an optimal morality you will lose place with the people for whom your morality exists. 

With such limited range, one may only inspire the world to do good through a chain reaction. Since no one can be perfect, just as your conception of morality cannot be perfect, direct your efforts toward a love balanced by non-interference. Be quiet when social, ready when called upon, and alive with the people.

How seriously you live is partly contingent upon how much life you live.

If you desire that anything happen as you will and not as it will, you are bound in shackles to your mind. And, if you desire that death not come when it wills, you are never truly free. 

If you are only unwilling to die, you can be made an evil slave to any force that can take your life. Therefore, be made free by relinquishing yourself to the universal will, and spend your time discerning what that is that you might not be caught doing evil when it was, instead, time to die.

Without believing you control your thoughts, thoughts cannot be within your control. If you believe you can control your thoughts, control over them can be exercised. 

At the height of control over your thoughts lies the greatest indoctrination. May you never speak the truth of what control you might be predisposed to lack or the truth of what control you might be incapable. Invalidate the lie by lying to yourself.

More enlightened than a sage with years of practice is a child with fewer years of conditioning.

If your ambition is tranquility, what you do is not important, but how you interpret what you do.

Safety isn't happiness. Happiness is found on the border of safety and danger where acceptance of change serves as the passport to true experience.

Giving way to anger sets the precedent for future action. Like an addiction, it's easier to relapse the more often we give in. This is the result of your reference point; the longer you stay away the worse it sounds to relapse. And yet, the present is all that's ever truly there.

Dismissal only comes after we assign form to something.

Beauty is most often found in the novelty of something. It is an impression which flees only once you become accustomed to it.

You find relief from the fear of death in the moments your attention is hijacked by one of life’s pleasures. You meditate that you might kill your ego, and gain respite from the interminable nagging of narrative thought. You’re eager to go to sleep, so you can shut down this contraption of desire succeeded by dissatisfaction. 

Dying is fine. Living is fine. Everything is interpretation.

What's a relationship with someone who won’t struggle for your wellbeing? At its best, sleep you didn't need.

You say to yourself, "I want... I like... I hate..." but in criticism you say, "you are mean... you are afraid." If you would identify with something, identify with the bad. Don't identify with the desire. This is the means to diluting desire and identifying error. But, if at all possible, discard the pronoun “I” entirely.

Statistical safety is logistical tyranny.

If you’re incapable of truly knowing another’s experience, what other truths are found only in experience?

Your universe could be configured in such a way that the act of consumption only led to the progress and longevity of an entity. It’s of some special significance then that as an organism’s consumption increases so does the oxidative stress which will lead to its eventual death. This same paradigm is present in humanity’s consumption of earth’s resources. 

“If you can let go of desire,” says the universe, “I will grant you more time.” 

If you wish to react out of virtue, indifference toward others interpretation of your response will lead to a better reaction. 

Your thoughts are a product of what you take into your mind. Therefore, you can only think the thoughts found in alone time if you spend time alone. 

If you wish to appreciate your left hand, go without using it. If you wish to appreciate the world, try finding the self in its absence.

When the entire world is taken from you, what are you? Everything and nothing.

Treat others the way you want to be treated? There are masochists, and desire is fleeting. Instead, treat others with love.

If there were a way to train yourself to see how long you could make a moment last, how would you do it? As a child your sense of time was shorter, since your life was such a small fraction of what it is now. If you could mentally escape all reference, you would be left with an infinity. 

If you’re denied a better mood by you’re interpretation of something, perspective keeps you from tranquility, since you assign meaning. But, if you were ignorant of all comparison, there would be nothing from which to derive your negative interpretation. Therefore, if you can only stop comparing, you don’t need a mind capable of unconventional interpretations.

Who is capable of seeing every effect of a single conversation? If your aim is to “make the world better,’’ you seek to make it according to interpretation, paving the road to hell with good intentions. Only relinquishing control will bring forth the goodness you seek. 

No battle against ego can be won, it must be starved out of its stronghold. 

No matter how rational you are, you’re not motivated without feelings. 

Is this said because the dying are incapable of bringing someone with them through that experience? 

But, we are all relegated to our own consciousness, and nothing is truly experienced “together.” You are all alone all the time, and anything else is the manufacturing of illusion. 

In order for something to be serious, it must have meaning. If we decide life’s meaning, we can decide it’s seriousness.

This distinction between ego and inner witness is creating a great judge against yourself. Who is this but ego dawning a new cloak?

Change is coming at the cost of comfort, but when isn’t it? If change isn’t intrinsic to our role as humans we were born into the wrong quantum soup. If it is, you’ve been in need of change since the moment of conception, and you’re chasing the wrong desires. Still, one shouldn’t desire change as much as for everything to happen as it actually does happen would you will your mind over to contentment.

I wonder, “Where does that leave ambition and aspiration?” 

How often are you interpreting the character of someone without deeper investigation? Do you dare to wear no sort of mask? 

Then why go on as if it were some mystery to you that nearly every walk of life has surprised you, from the uneducated educating, to the needy giving, to otherwise normal people expressing interest in something so abnormal. 

I see a mind intent on categorizing and giving the world form to create the illusion of control. 

What is truly normal is to be caught buying tickets in a society which has said we must use the cruise ships it built to navigate the seas while there is the ability to construct a sea-fairing vessel within each of us. 

Adversity measured under greater adversity takes on new form. Why let externals shape your interpretation? It is within you.

You can’t truly control your thoughts. You can be drug along by them, witness them, shift your attention, or alter external stimuli to manifest thoughts of another kind.

You fear death, but believe the self is illusory? It’s not you that’s going to die.

Make your words plain. That is the form truth most often takes.

If you wish to free your mind of unnecessary judgement, stop seeing yourself in everyone, and start seeing everyone in yourself.

The wise ask, “What is the full range of opinions on this? Am I pursuing the best interpretation?”

The sage asks, “For what reason do I believe I need an opinion?”

How differently your world would be shaped without your belief that there’s evil. Is a star’s consumption of the elements evil? 

Like you, that star will die. What would happen if only one thing went on consuming forever? You must be consumed and made new. Has someone brought you to consumption prematurely? All actions can be traced back to a cause; they were not free. 

Moral judgments do not exist without a judge, but the universe exists. Exist as your universe does, without such impressions. 

Because the past and future don’t belong to you, go beyond simply being present in the moment, and reflect on individual memories as individual moments without attachment to the way you wish things turned out.

Interacting with people you’d rather avoid is an opportunity to take note of the traits you should avoid developing.

Action can prevent bad things from happening, but nothing can be caused by inaction. So, why do you dread remaining still in motion and thought? Is there something bad you’re trying to prevent? If it is not external to you, stillness is likely required to solve it.

Beyond that which is physically forced on you, everything is self imposed. Even living is a choice.

As a child you wanted the strength and responsibility of an adult. As an adult you want the youth and unaccountability of a child.

While you can strip yourself of convention as would be the nature of a child, the rest is interpretation. Be happy for the good of the moment. Our capacity to think about a thing is no indication of that thought’s utility.

—Life is what you make it—

If life is what our thoughts make it, then find a a good and happy life in repetition—not in mindless physical tasks—but in repeatedly reflecting on the things which make you happy and the good you need to do.

—Find yourself—

If you want to hear your true inner voice, turn off the noise of everything else.

—I am—

Why is it always, “I think... I like... I love... I hate... Stop! Return to the present. Where is the I?

—The need for relationships—

You need to need no one if you are to be needed.

—What to do—

“What should I do today,” shares and answer with the question, “What do I want to put off doing?”

Without intrinsic meaning the wise can pass no judgment on the place meaning is found. An expedition holds the same value as a lonely game of solitaire provided that the player places and equivalent amount on it.

Instead, the wise concern themselves with their own desires: those they should let go of, and those in which they find their own meaning worth pursuing.

The instant your reputation is a factor in what you do is the moment it loses all its worth.

Imagine a world which is only good. To you the distinction exists. Is good what it is to inhabitants who know no evil? So, why are you disturbed by anything, good or bad? 

If you cannot know one without the other, welcome all things to come. Death will remove the impression of any contrast soon enough. 

If you’re continually fed, watered, and given the proper amount of sun, you could plant yourself in a single location to live out the rest of your days. With perfect form meditation you could spend those in a state of thoughtless awareness. You could live out your days as a tree. Your distinction from plant-life is not that you are condemned to a busier existence, but that you have the selection of additions.

It’s not your current state from which you should subtract and minimize, but the state of a tree to which you add only what’s essential. 

Virtue is your concern; those who would distance themselves because of what you concern yourself with will be replaced by another and another until your palate of relationships is refined to your aim. So long as you go on living the good and social life, this process runs in sync with the nature of your universe, change. 

Here, change as the obstacle has become the way.

You are water. Each moment is the path you travel, a stream of humanly inalterable time with highs and lows, rapids and calm, each owing the other its existence. Without each extreme’s counterpart, what would it be? There would be no such description, just as there exists no description for anything else that is nothing to us. 

And yet, water needs no opinion. It simply takes what shape it must to flow.