Most people talk about doubt like it’s a bad thing. “Don’t doubt yourself.” “Don’t doubt the process.” “Don’t doubt that success, fame, fortune, whatever, will happen for you. Just keep the faith and hustle, hustle, hustle.” In the self-help world, doubt is public enemy #1. That’s a problem. Doubt is…

Chronic pain feels like a curse, but your life is still up to you. — It leaches the life out of you, makes you miserable. But it doesn’t mean your life is over. You need to understand that, especially if you’ve just begun experiencing it. There are many people who have lived meaningful, impressive lives despite their chronic pain. Take William James, for example. He…

Every week a new hashtag about a piece of legislation roars onto the trending tab. Every week mobs of people draw battle lines and hurl insults at each other, crusading for a bill they vigorously support or condemn. You’ve seen this. Anyone who spends even a few minutes on social…

If you want people to trust you, respect you, or follow you, you need to get your core values straight. No one wants to follow a leader who lies, cheats, avoids responsibility, or breaks promises. Such “leaders” aren’t leaders aren’t at all. To be a good leader — scratch that…

Buddhism is badass but complicated. These books make it easy. — Buddhism is badass. I don’t think the Dalai Lama would approve of my choice of words but I think he’d agree with the general sentiment. I’ve written about Buddhism before. It’s one thing to read about the subject, and another to have the skills to investigate and analyze the themes…

“Today, there seems to be only one absolute thing: relativism”. —Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda Relativism is bullshit. Okay, maybe that’s not the most eloquent way of saying it, but it’s true. Relativism insists that everything is relative, which, besides being a contradiction (because if everything is relative then…

The drunk man repeated himself like a broken record. “Thou shall not kill! That’s what the Bible says. That’s what God commanded and I violated that commandment. Thou shall not kill…” I was out for drinks with my friend when a stranger asked to borrow a cigarette. My friend obliged…

To say Hinduism is complicated is like saying the universe is big. That might be true, but it doesn’t give you an idea of just how big it is. Then again, what else would you expect from one of the world’s oldest, best-preserved religions with thousands of pages to pour…