We are too attached to the concerns of this life, and business people understand this, so they manipulate us through their advertising, which has an especially strong affect on young people. They suffer thinking that if they don’t have the latest thing, life is meaningless. If they have it, they will be beautiful and something great will happen. They do not question: Is all this true? Will it really make me happy? Actually, it is they themselves who have to make things good and create their own happiness.
In the Dharma we use our intelligence to think about our situation and see clearly whether something is necessary or not. What benefit or problems will it create? Is this good for me in the short term? In the long run? We question to find out the truth and then live by that. If we blindly follow what others do, we cannot live our own life or discover its real purpose. If we do what benefits ourselves and others, we are actually practicing Dharma. Since we seek to become a genuine, noble person, we are not entirely concerned with this worldly life and more concerned with the Dharma.
~ Gyalwang Karmapa’s teaching on The Torch of Certainty : Session Three