Ravi blinked. He had expected a tidy trick, a mantra, a secret website that solved ennui. Instead the monk spoke of small things: the patience of sweeping a courtyard once a day, the insistence of watering a plant, the way people tucked each other into warmth with humble tasks. He said that emptiness often grew in the rooms we stop visiting: the room of craft, of curiosity, of kindness. "Begin there," he said.
Under the Bodhi Tree in Bodh Gaya, India, Siddhartha sat in meditation, vowing not to rise until he had attained ultimate understanding. After 49 days of deep contemplation, he finally comprehended the Four Noble Truths: