What do we want in life?
To live life the way we want. Do the things we like.
Why? Why do we want to do this?
Doing this gives us sense of well being. Gives pleasure, Makes us happy, makes us satisfied etc. It gives as set of positive feeling in us which we enjoy.
Why?
Some of these things we want to do are physical in nature like eat good food, wear good cloths, live in a comfortable house, have sex, grow children etc. We can classify these as basic necessities.
Some are mental states like happiness, satisfaction, pride etc.
Physical needs are things we cannot do away with to sustain life and positive mental state becomes impossible to be sustained over long time without fulfilling physical needs.
So does constant supply of physical needs ensure positive mental states? No
We can safely assume that an everlasting positive mental state is the ultimate goal of every human being.
How can we ensure this mental state? Is it possible to achieve everlasting positive mental state? What are the steps to be taken to in order of priority?
1) Ensure physical needs are fulfilled on time. i.e. Health, food, cloths, house, sex etc
2) Ensure to keep away negative thoughts out of the way to ensure optimum mental state. This includes things that cause trouble to oneself and also to the ones around you who have the same objects in life like us
How can we try to achieve this in our day to day life in the current state of world in the easiest way?
1) Earn our living by means of our interest to ensure that our physical needs and reasonable pleasures are taken care of
2) Choose things of out liking for basic necessities and pleasure
3) Try to obtain positive mental state by providing required external conditions
4) Expect the internal conditions of positive well being to develop
Note: Pleasure is an external activity in which we engage to induce an internal likable mental state of our choice
Also note that activities of pleasure often go stale, or we will not be able to derive the same mental state of being by doing the same external activity over and over. Hence it becomes a necessity to rediscover the same activity or shift on to new activity over time.
This brings us to the point that even if we supply all the external conditions required, the internal likable state of being cannot be ensured.
In a way, we can say that the internal likable state of being is dependent on the external conditions required, but the provision of the same does not guaranty internal state of being.
So what if we attempt to separate internal from external by some means? Or make the internal state of being independent of the external conditions by means of some meditation or something? Can this ensure internal likable state of being? No
No. So we might need to check what cause the likable internal state of being more carefully.
What causes the likable internal state of being in us?
Satisfaction or meeting of the arising desire within us causes us to have a likable state of being. At least that is true for a short period of time.
Note: This brings to my mind that the word DESIRE is a very important concept in the opinion of Buddha and it is the cause of all pains in this world. But let us examine this further anyways
Can desire be controlled or avoided? If we avoid desire completely, can this ensure the positive likable state of wellbeing?
No. In fact it kills the positive likable state of wellbeing forever on the contrary, as desire and its fulfillment from time to time is what brings positive state of mental condition in human beings.
What causes Desire in us?
1) Physical needs like food, clothing, sex etc
2) Past pleasant experience and some kind of attachment that we develop to it. E.g. we had some food that tasted good and hence the desire to have that particular food arises when we think of it when we are hungry.
Or we can say that the memories of our past positive state of mind created as a result of our interactions with our five senses with the surroundings, our attachment to that particular state of being of our mind can be called as desire. In fact the longing itself is what is called as desire. Or it is the mechanism of our body that pushes us to replicate a once experienced favorable external condition over and over can be termed as desire.
Note: Attachment is also a very important concept in Buddhism.
The interesting thing is that the reconstitution of all the external conditions to reach that state of mind once again need not ensure the repeat of the same state of mind.
So what every individual is constantly trying to do is
1) To create an external state of being and in turn an internal state of being that can replicate an already experienced favorable state of being
2) Or the mind’s deduction of a new state of being that it considers to be favorable based on the past experiences of external conditions
3) And conversely we are also trying to constantly avoid a previously experienced negative external state of being.
Is the attainment of constant preferred physical and mental state of being possible?
What do we need to do to achieve this?
I can say that a state of well being for ourselves and a state of well being for people around us forever can ensure this forever.
Is this possible (at least for me)?
1) Satisfying needs
2) Should do away with as much of desire as possible as non attainment of the same can cause pain after effort to attain the same
But what if health fails for me or for people around me? What if someone around me suffers and or die?
So it is impossible for us to ensure that everyone around us is happy. All what we can try to do is for ourselves to be happy and try as much as possible to help others without getting attached to our effort.
Attachment can be a cause of pain.
State of constant good health of our self is also impossible. Hence we might need to do away with the desire of it.
Always eliminate all the impossible
Never desire for anything impossible or beyond our reach as it is the cause of pain
Or
Always restrict our desire to attainable things
If the present and what is at hand can be considered as the attainable, then what we need to do is live and be happy of the present. Or constantly redirect desires to our present.
Now if we consider the urge for the state of constant well being as a desire, is this desire attainable?
No. so we should ideally give up desire for this, instead take it a way of life without getting attached to it.
So further, constant state of physical and mental well being is also impossible hence the desire of the same should also be done away with.
So if we look at it more carefully, is it the desire that is causing the pain? No, Desire itself does not cause pain, it is the attachment to the result of our actions to attain the desire that is causing the pain. If the result is fulfilled there is no pain, but if it is not then there is pain.
This brings us to the Hindu philosophy outlined in Bhagavad Gita, “Do your karma without getting attached to the result”.
Another way of looking at our observation is that “Desire itself does not cause pain, but it the state of the world that cannot guaranty our desires that causes the pain. For that matter the world can be such that it refuse to give us even the basic necessities at times.
Or I can never be always happy due to the way the world (from our experiences).
Is there a solution to the problem?
The solution can be changing the world or changing our mind.
Changing the world’s state of being is impossible as we know, so this is ruled out.
So the option left out is changing the mind. Can this be attained? Can we tune our mind to have a constant state of well being?
Or if I rephrase the question, is the constant state of mental well being can over ride and hence a bad world condition can be nullified to still yield the same end result.
To recall again, what is the required mind condition?
1) Never desire for anything impossible (even permanent well being) ---way to avoid pain
2) Always desire for the possible (live in the present) ---way to be happy
I guess I got the way of life….at least till I lose it again…lol….:D
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