Humans are survival machines. All living beings are. We’re desire machines, but out of all our desires, our main desire is to survive. It’s our main instinct. We’ve evolved to survive. We’re wired to survive. And just to be clear survival isn’t just about our lives. It’s not just about…

Our consciousness feels like life is about what happens to us. That life is about having experiences that we want to have. That life is about getting what we want. That life is about achieving our dreams, our purpose, our meaning. That life is about being ultimately happy and satisfied. …

Humans are desire machines. But specifically, our consciousnesses are desire machines. We have desires about everything in our lives, especially our relationships. So, we try to satisfy some of them, sometimes succeed, sometimes fail, react, and then the process starts over. But our awareness sees that being a desire machine…

Power is simply the ability to get what we want. But most of our desires are intertwined with human relationships. If we want something, it’s usually from someone else. If we want food, then we want the farmer to grow it, the distributor to deliver it to the grocery store…

As desire machines, all of our relationships are based on our desires. In chapter 1, we saw that we have desires about everything in our lives, from the weather to our iPhones to the people in our lives. Our desires for and in regards to something are what define our…

This clarity about the human condition, this dual experience we’re having, gives us a new view of the human experience. A new way of looking at what it means to be human. A redefinition. One in which we can see and discuss the two experiences separately instead of convoluting them. And it starts with our relationships.

You might be thinking: “I can and do choose. I make choices all day.” And I agree, we do make choices. If we choose to eat chocolate instead of vanilla ice cream, we’re making a choice. But, although we may have chosen to eat chocolate ice cream, we didn’t get…

We function this way, through our desires and beliefs, because of our nature and nurture. Our nature and nurture programmed our bodies and brains to work this way. By nature, first, I mean our DNA, which we get from our parents. By nurture, I’m referring to all the situations in…

Humans are also belief machines. We’re constantly forming beliefs. Once we generate a desire, we need to know figure out how to get what we want. We need to know how to get food for nourishment. We need to know what might hurt us in order to stay safe. …