Your desires are not yours.

Most of our desires are picked up through society: what other people are doing, what my friends are doing, what my brother's doing, what my classmates are doing, what my wife wants, etc. So we copy those desires, and then we make them part of ourselves, and we drive forward, drive forward.

But really, what do you really need? I think deep down, nobody is doing it for themselves. Deep down, everyone thinks they're fighting for a cause or they're helping out some downtrodden person or for their family or whatever. But when it comes down to what you actually need, you need a little bit of food, a little bit of water, and a little bit of a place to put your head.

We create these constructs of desire; we copy from each other. On top of that, it's really important to sit down sometime, close the door, turn off the lights, and just sit there by yourself and watch your mind. Don't even judge it, don't even argue with it, don't even fight it; just watch the thing run out of control. Your mind is like a monkey that's running around, flinging feces and throwing bananas everywhere—it's impossible to control.

Ask yourself, how did I become like that? Because when you were a child, you weren't like that. Look at any 2-year-old; they're not like that. They live very much in the moment; they don't have constant, uncontrollable thoughts about the past or the future, and that's what keeps them happy.

So how can you uncondition some of these things that you don't want anymore running through your head? It's possible, but it's different for everybody, sure.