“Samsara,†says the Advaita Vedantic classic known as the Ashtavakra Gita, “is the compulsion to act†(kartavya, “something to be doneâ€). This is a very interesting understanding of the nature of our suffering. It’s the feeling that we always have to do something to fix, improve, or escape our present situation. We are driven by Read More
Tag: samsara
Discontentment and the Compulsion to Act
It’s been interesting to discover how much resistance there is to thinking of contentment as the real goal of a spiritual life. This extract from a teaching I gave in Brooklyn last month makes the case that it is precisely the need – the compulsion – we feel to always have to do something to Read More