The range of selfishness is equal to the range of desires. Owing to the hindrance of multifarious desires, it becomes impossible for the soul to find free and full expression of its true being; and life becomes self-centered and narrow.
The entire life of the personal ego is continually in the grip of wanting, that is, an attempt to seek fulfillment of desires through things that change and vanish. But there can be no real fulfillment through transient things. The satisfaction derived from the fleeting things of life is not lasting, and the wants of man remain unfulfilled.
There is thus a general sense of dissatisfaction accompanied by all kinds of worries.
-Discourses, 7th Ed, pp10-11