How can we avoid getting infected with material desires because of the triangularity of desires?
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just as we might develop spiritual desires triangularly, but we can also develop more worldly desires triangular somebody earns more than us we might become jealous of them how do you avoid that negativity there are two things in this that we live in a competitive world and in a competitive world we naturally see who is above us and who is below us that’s just unavoidable so competition is unavoidable but competitive mentality or you could say comparison is avoidable but a comparing mentality is undesirable comparing mentality is where we constantly keep doing comparison comparison is a functional necessity if there is a class well, there will be grading and some student will come first, some student will come second, third, fourth, fifth that’s just a functional necessity but when comparison becomes the basis of our own foundational identity that means I start defining myself in terms of where I fall on that comparative scale that is when we sentence ourselves to insecurity so if our net worth becomes equal to our self worth then we will always be dissatisfied and a major problem in today’s world is that our area of comparison has now become the whole world in the past probably people lived in a village or a town or even a city it was their social circle now we have the whole world the most good looking people from the whole world the wealthiest people from the whole world, we see all of them so if we get infected by the comparing mentality that will keep us perpetually dissatisfied, never happy, so once we understand this point comparison is a functional necessity but comparing mentality cannot be the basis of our fundamental identity we are spiritual beings and each one of us is unique each one of us has been given some potentials we all can make a contribution according to who we are according to how we can do the best so when we start focusing too much on what others are getting or what others are earning or achieving or whatever, then that takes us away from who we really are and who we really can be so that’s why we need an inner security that there is there is a place in the world for us that the universe is big enough for everyone of us to find our niche for everyone of us to make our contribution if we had been if we were meant to be like someone else then we would have been made someone else you are you and I am I each one of us is unique so by seeing others doing something more or getting something more we can take some inspiration but if we let that define our self worth we become insecure so again I think A and R part, arise and release, that can help in not getting too affected by that and also we often reduce people to certain things this person is earning so much they are earning so much but is that much earning really making them happier making money is important but making something worthwhile with money is even more important to not have money is a problem but to have only money is often a bigger problem people can just become lonely sometimes with a lot of money and the person doesn’t have any consciousness properly no relationship properly huge amount of money they may get up they may buy a big house with that but the house will only give them the privilege of a lot of place in which to feel lonely and unhappy it will not give them anything worthwhile so it’s not just because somebody has got something more than us that doesn’t mean that they are happier than us doesn’t even mean that their life is more meaningful than us even if they have got more money they have to create a meaningful life with that money and for us also we may feel I need money yes we may need it also but more than that we need to create a meaningful life for ourselves and that’s why if we understand look within to understand who we are, what our interests are what our potentials are how we can make a contribution then we can start moving towards creating a meaningful life with whatever resources we have right now as we keep moving forwards resources may also grow so rather than letting society define what is important we look inwards and based on our priorities our nature we decide what is important for us and focus on that does this answer your question? thank you very much this is the last question we don’t want to go over time if any of you have any questions after that I will be available we can talk on a one to one basis ok so when we are not able to make the distinction ok so if we get start fusing with our inner screen acting accordingly what can we do about it it’s a gradual process rather than thinking of this as digital either we are doing it or we are not doing it we see it as more analog see we might be able to do it after some time we might say I decided ok I am not going to get angry I am not going to yell at anyone and then we start getting angry and then maybe at a particular time somebody we might have told someone I am not going to get angry and then we start getting angry and that person says I will not get angry and we start getting angry and then they point out to us you are getting angry and sometimes we are so angry that we don’t even admit we are angry they say you are getting angry I am not getting angry so now ok I am getting angry so it’s the moment we realize it we do course correction and as we do it with respect to some things it will be easier for us to do it so it depends on going back to the earlier metaphor of the screen some things might be just default windows that open say all of us might have for our browser a home page click on the browser that is the page that opens now for each one of us the browser home page might be different and now even if we don’t think of anything we don’t just click on the browser that home page will open up similarly for us if we are very habituated to something very attached to something then in that particular action to differentiate will be very difficult because that just opens up immediately but we could differentiate in other things so somebody might be say very hooked to a particular habit Oscar Wilde said once that giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world I have done it over a hundred times so I gave it up but next time it popped up and it landed so yeah if we have done a particular thing repeatedly then distancing ourselves from it will be difficult but then we can start with something else ok when I get the urge to surf on the net I can’t control it I just get carried away but when I get the urge to overeat when I get the urge to oversleep maybe I can control that start with that so it’s like rather than setting a particular goal for ourselves we focus on the process when we focus on the process the goals will automatically come and if we focus on the goal some goals might be very difficult for us I conclude with this point that if we consider say if I take this object if I drop it obviously I won’t drop it but if I drop it it will fall because of the gravity so now the gravity on all objects is more or less the same depending on their weight but with respect to our psychology say if somebody is an alcoholic and somebody is a teetotaller non-alcoholic then both of them pass by a bar the alcoholic passes by the bar that bar will exert an extremely strong gravity pull on that person you feel almost pulled over there the person who is non-alcoholic that person may not feel any pull at all may not even notice there is a bar over there so now for the alcoholic to resist that pull will be much much more difficult for non-alcoholic there is no pull so resisting is no challenge at all similarly for each one of us the same object may exert different levels of gravity pull based on how we have interacted with that object so for some objects the gravity pull for us may be irresistible right now so that idea comes up and immediately we do it and if we try to fight that battle right in the beginning it is just a battle we can’t win right now and we may get discouraged and say I will never be able to do this but instead start with something where the gravity pull is not that strong and so in general with respect to improving ourselves it’s best to act small and grow big start with as simple a thing as possible if somebody wants to exercise, I will do one push-up every day one push-up? what is going to happen by that? see for the mind, see for the body one push-up and say 20 push-ups might be a big difference but for the mind one push-up every day for 20 days will create a deeper impression than 20 push-ups in one day so on the browser 20 times we have chosen push-up, push-up, push-up so that will create an impression and that will make the next day’s choice easier so sometimes when we try to change ourselves we set a very big goal for ourselves and when we can’t achieve it we fail and we give up but start with a small goal which you can do regularly and when we do that in self transformation regularity is much more important than quantity because the mind doesn’t the quantity doesn’t register on the mind as a repeated impression, regularity so that’s why if you can do some small thing regularly that will help us grow and that will help us bring about the change in life so thank you very much