On "What is Enough?"

Buddhist nun Thubten Chodron talks with Dan Harris on the 10% Happier Podcast #215 about the challenge of knowing what success looks and feels like. Harris asks Chodron, "What is enough? How do we know what is enough?" Chodron laughs and says:

There is never enough. Whatever you have, it's never enough. We don't have enough love. We don’t have enough money. We don’t have enough appreciation. We don't have enough fame.

This is easier to understand in terms of money and outward measures of success. In our normal way of life, with the normal measures, in the normal patterns of life in modern consumer society, there is never a finish line, never a "stop" button. There is always another level up. There is always other lanes of consumption and accumulation. A better car, better winter coat, a better wine to buy, more improvements to make on the house. More and better.

How do you get out of this cycle? Chodron says:

My philosophy is you make what you have enough. Then you have enough.

But it’s not just about money or consumer goods. It’s not just what you have materially. It’s about the general life of pursuit and acquisition and accomplishment, including our pursuit of love and esteem, of honors and reputation.

We have a choice to challenge the normal way of pursuit of accomplishments and accumulation of stuff. It begins with this basic realization.

We all do what we are capable of doing and that is good enough.

Chodron remembers a mentor telling her:

Who you are is good enough. What you have is good enough. What you do is good enough.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/215-whats-your-motivation-thubten-chodron/id1087147821?i=1000457992635