Comparison

All forms of useless suffering are created in a vain attempt to either acquire what we imagine will make us feel complete, or in the equally vain attempt to escape or otherwise control what we perceive is making us feel incomplete, or somehow inadequate.

Classroom Talk: 10/2/2024 - Continuing to look for something new outside of yourself is like rearranging the clothes in your closet and, after you're done, going back through it hoping to find the experience of some unexpected joy.

Classroom Talk: 2/14/2024 - Part 1: The witness to experience is not bound by it. Part 2: It's impossible to enjoy any moment in life, while fearfully trying to control it at the same time... that is, unless your idea of pleasure is the pain of making impossible demands on "others," not to mention upon yourself.

Classroom Talk: 1/25/2023 - Nothing makes us more common and unkind -- more like everyone else we judge -- than identifying with familiar painful negative reactions that seem to prove we're somehow different, superior to those whose character we hold in contempt.