Just when you work your ass off to get that job, buy that dream house, enter into a wonderful relationship....it all changes. It seems to go down the toilet. What once was fantastic loses its high, is no longer. The job either gets boring or where you work goes out of business or you are asked to transfer. The honeymoon period on relationships, houses, in fact anything, eventually wears off.
Now, don't get too depressed or bummed by this, because in the midst of all of this is peace. Tranquility and equanimity do exist, but not when you rely on conditions or circumstances...or even your idea of self (which is also a set of conditions)....Conditions and circumstance are always in a state of constant flux. Change is always happening...or at least appears to be happening when you are hanging onto an idea that you have a fixed 'self'. Your 'self' is also part of the whole equation of no satisfaction.
Satisfaction is only temporary...The good news is that you are not 'you'...Once you look deeply into who you are and who you call you, you can 'see' that there is no-thing there. All that is simply is as it is. Any grasping to make it different, to bend it to your ego's desires will end you up singing with good old Mick.
Learning to see into the transient state of all 'things' is to feel the peace of eternity. You can then see the illusion or delusion of chasing after conditions for eternal happiness or longstanding satisfaction. Once you catch a glimpse of this it is easier to live 'here and now'...in eternity. No self. No chasing. No satisfaction.
Henry David Thoreau once stated, "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." He knew the human condition and folly of chasing conditions for satisfaction. He saw the transiency of existence and could rest in "being". Finding our way through the illusion of this chase is in each of our journeys and is an easy trap to fall into...but once you are aware of the trap it also makes life more fun and joyous. It is a freeing event that you don't "need" anything...that all peace, all tranquility is right here, right now. No chasing required.
Well...my caffeine high is wearing off..
Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen
I imagine Mick Jagger as a sage, hahaha... nice one! :D
ReplyDeleteWell, satisfactions fade, indeed...
I subscribe to the Curly's philosophy...'you have to find that ONE thing.' ;)
ReplyDeleteHi Shinzen...another great post.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree totally, in my experience 'Satisfaction' is a short term fix, and one needs another 'satisfaction fix' pretty soon after the last one! 'Fulfillment', on the other hand, is totally different. Fulfillment is of our very being, it is lasting, whilst satisfaction is of the the conditioned personality, which is never happy with what it has for long. The Personality is always looking for something better, another fix, and what it has is rarely good enough for long ;-)