When you focus on pleasure and enjoyment, you are moving in the opposite direction from awareness.
Today I understood something about certain esoteric-oriented people who say we should all give in to our natural instincts and enjoy our lives to the fullest. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
I think there is nothing wrong with satisfying your natural instincts. It’s healthy. However, there is a difference between satisfying your natural instincts and deliberately tapping into them to get an ever increasing amount of pleasure. Thing is, the amount of pleasure you want is never going to be enough. Take addicts, for example. I mean people who are addicted to something. Over time, an addict needs more and more of that thing they are addicted to. Things get out of balance. The addiction begins to control the person’s life.
Speaking of control…
Achieving awareness is about (re)gaining control of your life.
You become not a building, but the architect. Not a foodie, but the chef. Not a disciple, but the master.
If all you seek is enjoyment, it takes away from you control over your life.
How does it work really?
The multiverse we live in is designed as a system of reward (dharma) and punishment (karma). A system of giving and taking. Those two gravity points act like the guidelines for our development. We keep gravitating towards reward and avoiding punishment. And it’s not personal on behalf of the supreme mind. It doesn’t hate anyone, nor does it judge anyone. But the goal for all living beings is to achieve greater awareness.
As the person becomes more and more aware of the ultimate truth, he or she begins to see clearly how the world works.
As humans, we understand pretty well what drives or motivates less aware beings like animals or insects. We know that flies will be attracted to a source of light, because that is their natural instinct. We also know that animals need to reproduce and that instinct will kick in at some point, so some pet owners even sterilize their pets (which I, for one, consider a selfish thing to do) in order to control that instinct.
The difference between humans and animals is this, though: humans know how to abuse their instincts. We become addicts (sex addicts, video game addicts, social media addicts) by choice. Certain people (probably those who are more aware than the average human) create those addiction mechanisms. Less aware humans fall into those traps. They get addicted to short, frequent dopamine boosts and, overtime, our addicted brains overpower any desire towards awareness in us – weak, poor mortals.
But they/we say, “Hey, it’s all right. What’s wrong with enjoying your life?”
That’s the thing, friends. There is no right or wrong in the multiverse, really. But everything has a cause and a consequence. If we become a consumption society beyond repair, the mind in control will have given us a wakeup call. I don’t think you’re going to like it 🙂
Post image credit: network_ on Pixabay.
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