Open to learn the key to infinite happiness

Hint: It's easier than you think

Author

Burak Esen
August 30, 2022

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Something to Read:

A story about desire | The Emperor and the Beggar

Think of desire and happiness on separate sides of a weighted scale.

The more of one gives you the less of the other.

Make more, want more, repeat.

But happiness is actually a result of taming your desires. It's being happy with where you are now.

And this story below may be an old fable, but the thesis still applies.

An emperor was coming out of his palace for his morning walk when he met a beggar. He asked the beggar, "What do you want?"

The beggar laughed and said, "You are asking me as though you can fulfill my desire!"

The king was offended. He said, "Of course I can fulfill your desire. What is it? Just tell me."

And the beggar said, "Think twice before you promise anything."

The beggar was no ordinary beggar; he was the emperor’s past life master. He had promised in that life, "I will come and try to wake you in your next life. This life you have missed but I will come again." But the king had forgotten completely -- who remembers past lives? So he insisted, "I will fulfill anything you ask. I am a very powerful emperor, what can you possibly desire that I can not give to you?"

The beggar said, "It is a very simple desire. You see this begging bowl? Can you fill it with something?"

The emperor said, "Of course!" He called one of his viziers and told him, "Fill this mans begging bowl with money." The vizier went and got some money and poured it into the bowl, and it disappeared. And he poured more and more, and the moment he would pour it, it would disappear. And the begging bowl remained always empty.

The whole palace gathered. By and by the rumor went throughout the whole capital, and a huge crowd gathered. The prestige of the emperor was at stake. He said to his viziers, "If the whole kingdom is lost, I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated by this beggar."

Diamonds and pearls and emeralds, his treasuries were becoming empty. The begging bowl seemed to be bottomless. Everything that was put into it -- everything! -- Immediately disappeared, went out of existence. Finally it was the evening, and the people were standing there in utter silence. The king dropped at the feet of the beggar and admitted his defeat. He said, "Just tell me one thing. You are victorious - but before you leave, just fulfill my curiosity. What is the begging bowl made of?"

The beggar laughed and said, "It is made up of the human mind. There is no secret. It is simple made up of human desire."

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A h/t to Julian for this one.

Something to Watch:

Today I'm going to admit that I changed my mind on something.

I've never been a fan of wearable tech (i.e. Fitbit, Apple Watch, etc.) due to reasons such as cost and inaccurate tracking.That changed last week when I bought one of these.

It's called a Whoop, a device created by a couple Harvard Squash players after noticing they had issues with recovering from their own workouts.

Don't think it's a piece of junk because of no display, it still has capabilities to track sleep, physical recover, and daily strain.

Check out this review below... I plan to do my own 100 day review when the time comes.

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