Logesh Paul’s Reviews > Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind > Status Update

A meaningful life can e extremely satisfying even in the midst of hardship, whereas a meaningless life is a terrible ordeal no matter how comfortable it is.

When things deteriorate, expectations shrink, and consequently, even a severe illness might leave you pretty much as happy as you were before.

Happiness does not really depend on objective conditions of either wealth, health or even community. Rather, it depends on the correlation between "objective conditions and subjective expectations".

If you want a brand new bullock-cart and get a bullock cart, you are content. If you want a brand-new Ferrari and get only a secon-hand Fiat you feel deprived.

Nirvana (the literal meaning of which is extinguishing the fire)

A person who does not crave cannot suffer.

Guatama developed a set of meditation techniques that train the mind to experience reality as it is, without carving. These practices train the mind to focus all it's attention on the question "What am I experiencing now?" rather than on "What would I rather be experiencing?" It is difficult to achieve this state of mind, but not impossible.

Gautama saw that men and women, children and old people, all suffer not just from occasional calamities such as war and plague, but also from anxiety, frustration, and discontent.

Yet no matter what they achieve, they are never content.

The first coins in history were struck around 640 bc by King Alyatees of Lydia, in western Anatolia.