True Satisfaction
Related: Achieving and Maintaining Internal Equilibrium, What Represents True Self
True Satisfaction is Found From Within
From sadness, close-mindedness, and selfishness
You are sad
You are one person
Are you the only person with problems?
Do you think everyone else is happy inside?
To go on about life, living
To do what you do, day after day
Doing the things you do
Taking the directions you take,
Choosing the paths you choose,
Where are you going?
What is the purpose?
What is the significance?
Of the things you do,
The directions you take,
The paths you choose
What does it take for one to be satisfied?
If a hurdle is overcome, why won’t you see another?
Can everyone have what everyone wants?
How many young men want a beautiful woman, a fast car, lots of money, a nice house, etc.?
How many young men have a beautiful woman, a fast car, lots of money, a nice house, etc.?
What separates those who have from those who have not?
And even so, for the few that have those things, how long until they too, are once again unsatisfied?
As one lives, one seeks to be satisfied, but if one continually seeks more, and needs to continually achieve and acquire in order to feel satisfaction, then how does one ever become truly, internally satisfied?
It is only evident, that true satisfaction must come from within. Only there, is it truly found.
And through this way only, may one come to peace and find equilibrium.
To peace, open-mindedness, and selflessness
Existing in the world, living day to day, it may be easy to be influenced by the environment, and your surroundings. Many aspects of daily life revolve around an underlying competitiveness. Living in today’s modern world, it is easy to fall under the ideals that satisfaction is only achieved through the acquiring of new things, experiences, or achievements. The truth is that finding true, internal satisfaction should not be dependent upon the experiences, life, and living between you, and the outside world, for true peace, true satisfaction, is found from within. Therefore, it should not matter of your state of being, whether at the highest of highs or the lowest of lows, with regards to your level of satisfaction, and peace.
Think not about what is missing, but realize that which is not missing.
Do not worry about what may happen. Realize that true satisfaction and true peace come from within, and therefore worrying about what may happen in the future becomes irrelevant, and unnecessary.
Instead of spending so much time concerned about what’s wrong, and what you don’t have, realize what is right, and what you do have, for one will never be satisfied so long as one compares.
Do not compare for the sake of trying to find satisfaction, for then satisfaction becomes no different than the enticing carrot dangling off the end of the pole in front of the donkey – it becomes something that is always just out of reach.
It is possible for one to truly be satisfied, and to also pursue things in life.
What happens is that people look to the outside world, that which is external to self, to find satisfaction. But, what happens is that people grow accustom to things and so they are continually searching for things to bring them gratification, satisfaction.
Perhaps it is ok to enjoy those things that may be in your presence, which many may take for granted. But when those things are no longer in your presence, or removed, the longing, the desiring, the craving, must not be present.
You must separate the longing, the desiring, the craving, from the searching, and the seeking. In this way, may one find true satisfaction from within and still have motivation and drive.
The pursuit of satisfaction is perhaps the key driving or motivating factor in most everyone’s life. In other words, if you keep asking why, why, why, etc. for the reason why you do anything, eventually, the answer will simply be, “to find satisfaction” and there will be no further reason beyond than that.
There are two primary ways in which satisfaction can be found: internally and externally. True satisfaction is only found internally, by looking within self. Worldly satisfaction is found externally, by looking to your outside world to find satisfaction.
Of external satisfaction, there are two main ways in which worldly satisfaction may be found: by taking or by giving – by acquiring or by contributing. Creating is a form of giving.
Giving and taking differ in that, regret is not experienced in the act of giving. By taking, one may feel satisfaction immediately or shortly thereafter the act is committed. But, perhaps at a later time regrets may be experienced regarding that act, and that results in dissatisfaction. Therefore, in a sense, the act of taking to find satisfaction, fuels itself.
Examples of taking, or acquiring are: marriage, kids, sex, addictive behaviors like drinking, smoking, eating, also, watching TV, doing drugs. Anything that is being taken in, or being acquired in any shape or form, is taking.
Examples of giving are, helping those in need, volunteering, all forms of creating, such as music, visual art, etc. By giving, it is coming from within you, and going out.
Giving is going out of you, taking is coming into you. Although giving is a better act than taking, both represent forms of seeking of worldly satisfaction.
So should one neither give nor take? If one gives not and takes not, then what is one doing? So one lives and so one does.
Maybe you think about food because your body needs food to live. You need to consciously want the food in order for it to be put in your system. You cannot subconsciously consume food. You need food to live. This does not mean it has to affect you mentally though. It does not have to affect your mental state. Mental state and physical state are two different things. Let’s keep them separate. The physical act of releasing sperm and the mental act of having sexual thoughts are two different things. The key is the state in which you want your mind. This is where you must put the focus. You want a stable mind and you must focus on this. Wanting can lead to mental instability. If you want nothing, then you are content with your current state. Do things because they are necessary for your survival, not because you want them. Understand the idea that wanting is bad because it weakens you. It sets you off on a journey searching in order to find satisfaction. If you are searching, it takes away from your ability to find peace.
Appreciate what you have but want to become better
There are always people better than you and people worse off than you. There are those who say “you should be happy with what you have, there are a lot of people that would switch places with you in an instant.” But it is human nature to want to become better, and to compare oneself to others that are better in different aspects. For example, if my issues were resolved, I would find new things to be discontent with. Life is full of so many different variables, it is hard for anyone to not have issues that they struggle with.
Issues fall under many categories,
• Social
• Physical
• Mental
• Spiritual
• Etc.
Dualism with respect to True Satisfaction
Related: Dualism
Now you understand that true satisfaction is found from within. What if there is a voice inside of you that says, “no, that is bullshit, you’re just kidding yourself?”
How does one determine right and wrong, good and bad?
May one be conscious of the fact that something is bad, and yet do it anyway?
Sometimes the line may blur between that which is acceptable and that which is unacceptable.
If one understands that true satisfaction is found from within, then why can that concept not be applied to many facets or aspects of life and living?
You may fight yourself, internally between that which you crave, and that which is bad.
It may be easy to place limits or constraints on certain actions or behaviors, the hard part is adhering to those limits and constraints.
Be Content with What You Have
Be content because of what you do have.
Do not be discontent because of what you do not have.
Do not seek for the purpose of finding fulfillment.
Appreciate Life
Visualize yourself in a less fortunate situation
You need to appreciate life
Think about when you could have almost died and how you appreciate life afterwards
Or how much you appreciate life after a plane lands safely
It’s all a state of mind
Remember that
Absolute true satisfaction means that you do not need anything to be satisfied, you do not need food, sleep, shelter, sex, family, friends, motion, movement, anything. Yet you eat food to survive, you sleep to survive, you interact with and care for others because you are gracious.
Joy doesn't just come from indulgence, it comes from appreciation.
Appreciating and Accepting
The more you take away, does it not become harder to be accepting and appreciative?
Therefore, what you have does depend on your ability to be appreciative and accepting.
What if your mobility was removed?
What if you were in a prison?
What if you were in a torture camp?
What if you experienced physical and mental pain every day?
What if you had no arms and legs?
What if you were deaf?
What if you were blind?
What if you had no family?
What if you were poor?
What if you did not have a warm place to sleep?
What if you had no friends?
Could you still be appreciative and accepting?
Appreciative means appreciate what you have.
Accepting means accept things the way they are.
If you can truly be appreciative and accepting, then you can achieve internal peace and satisfaction.
Satisfaction and Freedom
What do you need?
Sometimes we want something that other people also want, if we do obtain that, it may make us feel good because we have it and other people don’t. And when other people see us with this person or thing it makes us feel good because we know they want it too but can’t have it.
We want to fit in. We want to belong. We want to be accepted by people or groups that we are interested in being part of.
We have self esteem issues. We are conscious of how we appear to others. We question our looks or our personality. We adjust ourselves to fit in.
We get sexually aroused. We want to please ourselves sexually and engage in sexually stimulating situations.
We get angry if things do not go our way, if things do not go the way we intended.
We get hungry and thirsty, we want food and drink, we need this to sustain us and keep us alive.
We want independence, mobility, freedom to do what we want. We are always trying to increase our freedom.
We want to look good, so we exercise our body, put on makeup, dress nicely.
These are a few of the motivational factors that drive us, that help to shape and determine why we do what we do every day.
The more we need to be satisfied, the less free we are.
The more things you need to satisfy in your life, the more dependent you become, and the less freedom you have.
For some people, everything gets stripped away from them, such as the people in the concentration camps. If you lose everything you know, property, family, even your muscles in your own body, you do not think about playing video games, getting drunk, hanging out with friends, having sex, fitting in, looking good, providing for a family. Your focus becomes mental stability. There is nothing to be satisfied in order to achieve equilibrium. You either go crazy because everything is taken away from you and there is no way to satisfy those things anymore to come to stability or you or you realize everything is gone and nothing needs to be satisfied other than your own sanity or mental stability.
If your desires, temptations, and wants are the masters, then you are the servant.
Sexual desire is a weight that weighs upon the mind.
You should have no weights that weigh upon the mind.
You shall have no weights that create preoccupation.