Philip Seymour Hoffman on Happiness

Louis C.K.'s Girls Can't Have Cell Phones

"You need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. That's what the phones are taking away, is the ability to just sit there. That's being a person." - Louis C.K.

From Victimhood to Mastery with Lama Marut

Lama Marut is a Western-born monk who teaches primarily Westerners. I think his approach is "tough love" and it's sometimes painful to hear. Unlike many of his contemporaries who push us to be kinder to ourselves, he takes an alternative approach which is to remind us that our suffering is karmic return. If it's karmic retribution, then we take ownership of it and we fix it in this lifetime. If we suffer, we are victims only of our own past actions. He reiterates this message over and over again: No one can make you unhappy. No one can make you happy. Only you are responsible for your own happiness.

(Here is Part 2)