A daily meditation on the Four Infinite Thoughts changes our entire life. It gives our life real and lasting meaning. Eating, earning and spending money, working for a house that we will lose, the slow descent into weak old age and death are not what we were meant to do with our lives. Deep inside, we know that very clearly.

That's why it makes our minds feel bright and clear when we hear someone say that our real purpose in life is to help and serve others; and not with kinds of help that will themselves quickly be used up and disappear. We were all meant for more.

The physical yoga exercises, and the special breathing techniques that go with them, are meant to open up the subtle inner channels. But because the thoughts themselves travel in these channels, we can get the same results—a lot more quickly and easily—by simply thinking these highest four thoughts of all.

We rarely really think about what others around us want or need. When we do, we find that we are released from our constant, exhausting compulsion for the bigger and better—clothes, food, money, fame.