PLEASURE

WHETHER we are aware of it or not, we are continually searching for some sort of enjoyment in our life. We want to experience all the high sounding stuff like peace, joy and love, commodities that we believe will help fill the emptiness within, but instead, we mistakenly pursue their poor substitute, pleasure. This causes great confusion in our lives, for we can never find enough of it.

We look for excitement outside of ourselves. We over eat, drink to excess, take drugs or indulge in our favourite activities to the extreme, all in the hope of feeling good. When we don’t feel good, we believe that someone else must be at fault and not us, so we try and convince those others to fix the situation.

We want to be entertained, amused, to have nice things, to live in the lap of luxury, but our quest is never ending. As soon as we get something we want, we get sick of it and want some new thing to amuse us. We search for those high sounding aspirations like love, joy and peace but we never succeed in finding them for they are not emotions, or commodities to acquire, they are states of being.

When our desire for pleasure is not forthcoming, we need to be consciously aware of that fact and nothing more, instead of identifying with it, as we all do, causing ourselves unnecessary pain. Our lesson is to learn to unconditionally accept life just as it is, which is a very difficult thing for us to do – for our emotions always get in the way.

When we desire things to be different from what they are, what happens is we get depressed, bored and impatient. So the more consciously aware we are of what we are feeling in any moment, without identifying with those feelings, the easier it will become to accept and enjoy life as it is – practice makes perfect.

There is nothing wrong with our desire for pleasurable things and feelings. Naturally we want to feel good, to feel better and be happy, but we are continually seeking in the wrong place, we are seeking outside of ourselves. It already exists within us – if we dare to look…

Dan’s Quote: “The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.”- Leonardo da Vinci

Inspiration for this chapter came from the writings of Joel Kramer, Eckhart Tolle and others.

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