LA Yoga: Sunandaji on The Power of Questioning to Control the Restless Mind
In the last few decades there has been a phenomenal rise in the standard of living. However, by many measures, the quality of human life has deteriorated. At the workplace there is dissatisfaction, stress, and animosity. At home, spouses are unable (more…)
Hit Me Again: The Value of Being Offended
The feeling of being offended or hurt by another’s opinions, beliefs, or values is something we can all identify with. It’s an unsettling and unpleasant experience, and rarely leads to healthy or appropriate responses. However with just a little intellectual training, (more…)
Goop: Vedanta – Why are we all so unhappy?
At its heart, Vedanta revolves around developing the intellect: That we are all unhappy because we drive our lives forward using only our minds, which are the seat of emotion, likes, and dislikes—we need our intellect, the seat of reason and (more…)
Happiness & Higher Values
Throughout life, humans seek pleasure, peace, satisfaction. All of our activities target an inner sense of completion and contentment, of being in harmony with circumstances and oneself. However, observation of our own experiences reveals that the sense of contentment and harmony (more…)
Trigger Unhappy
Something strange is happening at America’s colleges and universities. A movement is arising, undirected and driven largely by students, to scrub campuses clean of words, ideas, and subjects that might cause discomfort or give offense. (Lukianoff & Haidt, 2015, np) Recent articles in (more…)
Self-Development: Critical Thinking Matters
In our discussion of social evolution we need sometimes to remember that the very perfection of society must always appear as imperfection; for a highly developed society is dynamic. … A static society … is in a condition of arrested development; (more…)
Gratitude
The Practice of Gratitude Self-development is the reduction of ego and egocentric desires. It traces our human maturity, bringing a greater sense of autonomy and enhanced empathy with others. Ego reduction is achieved through personal development practices. They are the integrated disciplines (more…)
Success Without Ego
How do you have success in life without expressing your ego? We need to define ego first. Ego has different meanings and connotations depending upon context. Let us start with a working definition of ego. The discussion and examples below will help (more…)
Path to Pure Thinking
Save money on green juice… Detox your negative thoughts with the science of Vedanta. Why do we all strive for purity, for the ultimate cleanse or detox? What are we actually seeking? Vedanta tells us that we are seeking our own Self, the (more…)
Mechanism of an Ideal
As discussed in another post, an ideal is an essential aspect of self-development, and helps to draw us out of our immature, self-centered perspective. But what is the mechanism by which this ego-transcendence occurs? This can be explained by way of (more…)