"The true message of the Eastern religions, it seems to me, is not the abolition of all goals. What they tell us is that most intentions we form spontaneously are to be mistrusted. To make sure that we survive in a dangerous world dominated by scarcity, our genes have programmed us to be greedy, to want power, to dominate over others. For the same reason, the social group into which we are born teaches us that only those who share our language and religion are to be trusted.
The inertia of the past dictates that most of our goals will be shaped by genetic or by cultural inheritance. It is these goals, the Buddhists tell us, that we must learn to curb. But this aim requires very strong motivation. Paradoxically, the goal of rejecting programmed goals might require the constant investment of all one's psychic energy. A Yogi or a Buddhist monk needs every ounce of attention to keep programmed desires from irrupting into consciousness, and thus have little psychic energy left free to do anything else. Thus the praxis of the religions of the East is almost the opposite of how it has usually been interpreted by the West."
AND THE GOOD WAY TO LIVE:
"The best solution might be to understand the roots of one's motivation, and while recognizing the biases involved in one's desires, in all humbleness to choose goals that will provide order in one's consciousness without causing too much disorder in the social or material environment. To try for less that this is to forfeit the chance of developing your potential, and to try for much more is to set yourself up for defeat."
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