In the third century B.C., Epicurus based his system of ethics on the bold assertion that ‘pleasure is the beginning and end of the blessed life’. In every century, men and women have struggled with trying to define the proper role that pleasure should play in their lives-a legion of philosophers, theologists, and psychologists, all exploring our relationship with pleasure. Part of this is related to the fact that the ‘right choice’ is often the difficult one-the one that involves some sacrifice of our pleasure. And try as we may, we often don’t choose the thing that we know is ‘good for us’. But, having made the conscious decision to remain there on the basis of what she felt would ultimately make her happier, somehow made the heat more bearable.Įveryday we are faced with numerous decisions and choices. Of course, she still complained about the summer heat. Suddenly it became much easier to make her decision. Simply reframing her dilemma in terms of ‘Will it bring me happiness?’ seemed to provide a certain clarity. We often confuse what makes us happy with what brings pleasure. I really do get a lot of satisfaction working with the kids at my job…” Finally she answered, “I don’t know…You know, I think it would bring me more pleasure than happiness…Ultimately, I don’t think I‘d really be happy working with that clientele. I just don’t know what to do.” Her mention of the term ‘pleasure’ reminded me of the Dalai Lama’s words, and, probing a bit, I asked, “Do you think that moving there would bring you greater happiness or greater pleasure?” She paused for a moment, uncertain what to make of the question. She explained, “I know I wouldn’t enjoy the work as much as my job here, but that would be more than compensated for by the pure pleasure of living in that town! I really love it there. She tried making up a list of pros and cons, but the list was annoyingly even. For weeks, she had been struggling with the decision whether to accept the new job. The only problem was the fact that the job she was offered involved an adult clientele. In fact, she had visited that town many times and had always dreamed of moving there. She had been offered a job in a beautiful small town in the mountains. She often complained about the growing population, the traffic, and the oppressive heat in the summer. Although she enjoyed her job working with troubled youth, for some time she had become increasingly dissatisfied with living in that area. Heather was a young single professional working as a counselor in the Phoenix area. Not long after I returned home, during a therapy session with a patient, I was to have a concrete demonstration of just how powerful that simple realization can be. And yet, we human beings are often quite adept at confusing the two. On the surface, it seemed like a fairly obvious observation of course, happiness and pleasure were two different things. True happiness relates more to the mind and heart. Happiness that depends mainly on physical pleasure is unstable one day it’s there, the next day it may not be. I answered that from my point of view, the highest happiness is when one reaches the stage of Liberation, at which there is no more suffering. He wanted to know what I thought of that idea. I mentioned that the purpose of life was happiness, so one member of the audience said that Rajneesh teaches that our happiest moment comes during sexual activity, so through sex one can become the happiest. For example, not long ago I was speaking to an Indian audience at Rajpur. Now sometimes people confuse happiness with pleasure. Shortly into our conversation, we turned to the topic of pleasure.Īt one point in the discussion, he made a crucial observation: He, on the other hand, seemed to be in great spirits. Coming from a dry climate, I found the humidity to be almost unbearable that day, and I wasn’t in the best of moods as we sat down to begin our conversation. It was a particularly hot and humid July afternoon, and I arrived at his home drenched in sweat after only a short hike from the village. Several months after the Dalai Lama’s talks in Arizona, I visited him at his home in Dharamsala.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |