How would your relationships change if you resolved never to lie again? What truths about yourself might suddenly come into view? What kind of person… - Sam Harris

According to the Buddhist teachings, human beings have a distorted view of reality that leads them to suffer unnecessarily. We grasp at transitory pleasures. We brood about the past and worry about the future. We continually seek to prop up and defend an egoic self that doesn’t exist. This is stressful — and spiritual life is a process of gradually unraveling our confusion and bringing this stress to an end.

In the best case, notions of God’s love and grace provide some relief — but the central message of these faiths is that each of us is separate from, and in relationship to, a divine authority who will punish anyone who harbors the slightest doubt about His supremacy.

It is time we recognized that belief is not a private matter; it has never been merely private. In fact, beliefs are scarcely more private than actions are, for every belief is a fount of action in potentia.