One of my students told me a story about a soldier’s mother who could not pay her electricity bills. The mother was disabled, lived on a small pension, and could not cover the cost until her pension money arrived. On…

Both types of shame correspond to the desire to receive that surfaces within us. Spiritual shame is when we begin to feel the opposition in our desire, i.e., the opposition to the spiritual desire. We build spiritual shame in the…

When Isaac Newton died in 1727, his relatives inherited his vast collection of manuscripts and expected they would be highly valuable. Buyers and scholars from Cambridge, the British Museum, and various church representatives examined them. However, many were surprised or…

Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, a philosopher and diplomat, once wrote that there are two ways to be happy: either diminish our wants or augment our means, and the wise person will do both…

Researchers who analyzed over 6,000 movie scripts discovered that films following a “man in a hole” emotional trajectory, which are marked by a sharp fall in fortunes followed by a rise, tend to generate the highest box office revenues. This U-shaped pattern…

While feelings of betrayal or abandonment seem impossible to bear, we must rise to a level of understanding where we see that all people around us are like puppets, controlled by the governing force of nature. They act the way…

Happiness is when something you have longed for with all your might, which you have suffered for, pursued, and built tremendous aspirations toward, suddenly begins to be fulfilled. It is like relief from pain, and we call this sensation “happiness.”…

Why do some people feel regret at the end of their lives, while others insist we should just enjoy life and fulfill every desire? There are many stories about men who live quiet and grim lives. They seem cold and…