So it's traditional this time of year to make resolutions for the upcoming year, which many then

will promptly forget and abandon.

And while Americans certainly crave things and pleasures,

but let's face it, our culture descended from a bunch of Christian zealots, immigrants, two puritanical for the countries of origin, and

they brought with them a very holier than thou dogma of self-perfection seeking a divine union with God. So just turning on my recorder, there we go. So our self-help industry is huge.

In 2021, we generated something like 11 or 12 billion dollars. every year it grows that's in the US alone it grows bigger and bigger

with weight loss programs physical physical trainers, personal coaches,

self-help books, motivational speakers, holistic institutes,

you name it.

We are constantly being instilled with the idea that self-improvement is the spiritual goal and at this time of year we're supposed to resolve ourselves to becoming better people more perfect.

And yet the darma, the Buddha's teaching, is not a self-improvement regime or protocol at all.

In fact, in listing to three types of craving or addictive thirst that causes suffering,

the Buddha noted three.

The third type of craving that caused suffering was craving seeking self-improvement, new better states of self.

When I get a diploma, a career, a condo, a partner, children, when I retire, when I have more financial resources, when I get to some place in the future, that's when I get to relax.

And deeply built in, as the Buddha noted, this idea of self-improvement is this idea that right now I don't, I'm not allowed to be peaceful, happy, content. It's always something further down the line.

It's not something that's available to me now. This whole idea, this culturally

instilled notion of setting resolutions at times plays into this idea that to become fulfilled and content we have to achieve,

acquire. It's always something that is not available to us unconditionally.

The urge for life to become,

or our state of existence,

to become better, more complete is of course state of

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