Transcript

The Western intellectual tradition suggests that in order to be happy, what we need to do most of all is to go out and subdue the world. Secure resources, found businesses, run governments gain fame, and conquer nations.

By contrast, the Eastern tradition has for a long while, told us something very different. In both its Buddhist and Hindu strands, it has insisted that contentment requires us to learn to conquer, not the world, but the instrument through which we view this world, namely, our minds. It won't matter says the least, how lustrous and perfect our achievements end up being, how much money we accumulate, how many friends we acquire, so long as our minds remain open to being troubled at any point by our emotional faculties.