Spend any time immersed in mystical/spiritual traditions and you’ll quickly notice they espouse a way of life radically different than what most Americans – and more and more of the world – follow. Humility, silence, non-doing, acceptance, surrender, rejection of materialism – these are antithetical to the modern mind.

It’s not surprising we ignore such teachings – they offer very little for minds addicted to doing, becoming, accomplishing.

What is surprising, however, is that we persist in these habits despite overwhelming evidence that their anticipated rewards are not there. (Not to mention we’re making a mess of the planet and our kids in the process.)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to gaze across the human world and sense not just that things are amiss (they’re always amiss to some degree), but that the scope and scale of the insanity is intensifying. Is it surprising that such a trend parallels the growth in agitation in our minds – minds that rarely if ever rest?

Even well-intentioned friends, who tell themselves they’re ‘decompressing’ with a walk around the neighborhood, do so with a smartwatch recording calories burned while a smartphone and earbud combination pumps music or words into their brains.

And all the while the kids watch and listen and learn. Our gluttony for thought, food, sex, doing, connectivity, etc., are naturally mimicked – and, like the attention-seekers they’ve been raised to become – our kids take such addictions to still higher levels.

Who among us urges our kids toward solitude, disconnection, non-doing? Who inspires a child to inquire within, to examine thought rather than ride it? Who offers their children the notion that the inner life is far richer, more rewarding, and a place of lasting peace?

As the world burns – literally and figuratively – let us recall another of the sages’ pearls, the one that advises that if we are to save the world, we first must save ourselves. Maybe this time we’ll listen, and teach our kids that a kitchen remodeling project, an ‘A’ on an exam, or Trump vs Clinton, is far less important than the simple miracle of being.