Sublime

This is what people do—solve their own problems in others’ lives.

Alfred Adler, the famous Viennese psychologist, wrote a book entitled What Life Should Mean to You. In that book he says: “It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring.”

“The psyche’s job is to keep us blissfully ignorant of who we are, what we think, and how we’ll behave in any situation. We’re all operating in a dense fog of mutual reinforcement.

Compassion arises when you recognize that all are suffering from the same sickness of the mind, some more acutely than others.

Imagine what it would be like to see other people in this way too—as well-meaning at heart but sometimes misguided. We would understand that even our worst enemies are driven by parts of theirs that are just trying to protect them from shame, fear, and other difficult feelings.

He claims that in order to discover the truth, one must first know oneself fully. And to do that, one must remove oneself from one’s customary point of view, even from one’s own century and country—and then examine oneself from a distance!”

The chapters of this book follow the stages of spiritual work as I see and have experienced them. This is, fundamentally, the journey from the outermost layers of our consciousness, through the obstructions, into our innermost core. Chapter 1 encourages us to accept our flawed human nature and to honor our spiritual longing. Chapter 2 reinforces ou

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”—

That’s one way of going about it, but, I’m sorry to say, it’s superficial. Making him use his willpower, effort, doesn’t last very long. His behavior may change, but he does not. So I now move in the other direction. I say to him, “Lazy, what’s that? There are a million types of laziness. Let’s hear what your type of laziness is. Describe what you