The cause of the inner emptiness is the desire after becoming something

The more emphasis which is being put on the outer greatness, the greater is the inner guilt over unlived life.

But freedom from this guilt is not asceticism.

The cause of this inner emptiness is the desire after becoming something; and no matter what you do, then this emptiness can never be filled out.

You can escape from it, whether it happens in a clumsy way, or in a more cunning way; but you can´t move further away from it than from your own shadow.

You perhaps don´t want to look into this emptiness, but it is there nevertheless.

Neither those ornaments things can give you, nor the suit of penance, which the soul can dress in, can conceal this inner poverty.

Art of Life is to understand your natural needs, without clinging to the things

Most peoples´ minds are busy with things, and it requires understanding to grasp our right relationship with them.

It is not about asceticism, or love of lust, not about giving renunciation, or gather into barns, but about being yourself present in passive listening, and herein understand your natural needs, without this clinging to the things.

It was this realization Buddha came to after he as itinerant ascetic in 5-6 years had practised all possible penances, where he, among other things, tried to live of one corn of rice a day.

He realized that this self-torture didn't lead to enlightenment; that does instead the middle way, where you give the body what it needs, but without being in the control of the senses.

When you understand this, it is no sorrow to give up things, or an eternal fight to keep them.