The Illusion of Dissatisfaction
La ilusión de la insatisfacción
A reflection on how the mind perpetually defers satisfaction to the future, and how a deeper kind of fulfillment can only be found in the present moment.
The Illusion of Dissatisfaction
A reflection on how the mind perpetually defers satisfaction to the future, and how a deeper kind of fulfillment can only be found in the present moment.
Can you ever actually get what you are hoping to get in the future? The thing is, even when we obtain what we hoped for, the cycle continues. I can say, "Okay, I put my hope in a glass of water." Now the glass of water becomes my present moment experience. I have what I hoped for. But while I am drinking the water, I am already hoping for something else.
The fleeting nature of satisfaction
The satisfaction of eating when you are hungry goes away really quickly. And the moment that satisfaction goes away, we are in dissatisfaction instantly, hoping for something else to bring that satisfaction back. That is the mind.
There is a dissatisfaction and satisfaction at the level of the body and the mind. If I am hungry, there is going to be discomfort. If I eat, there is going to be satisfaction of that hunger. But I am talking about a different kind of dissatisfaction, one that can only be satiated by the present moment. Therefore, it can only be satiated always, without any conditions.
Self-hypnosis
If it can only be satiated by the present moment, then it is not really a dissatisfaction in the first place, because it is already satiated. Let us call it the illusion of dissatisfaction. It is self-hypnosis. And it is a choice as well. That is why it is self-hypnosis. We are not hypnotized by the universe or by God against our will. We hypnotize ourselves because (and I will leave that open). Fill in the blanks. You can contemplate this. It goes very deep. It will go to the root of your sense of who you are.
Undoing the knots
Think of reality as a thread. You can tie knots along the thread, creating little shapes, one knot here, another there, another there. But if you pull the thread straight, all the knots come undone, and it becomes simply a thread again.