“We have only this moment,
sparkling like a star in our hand...
and melting like a snowflake.”

Chasing Contentment

I've been playing a video game in the last few days. And while playing I noticed how the connection with this activity sends me into a state of mind where I am easily fooled into believing that I have to do something in order to be well. I have to destroy some villain in order to win. I have to overcome a series of obstacles to get to the next obstacle, or to get the next upgrades to become a better player.


Much of human activities are goal oriented. We are only considered a success, or good, praised, a hero, if we manage to attain goals. If not, then inevitably we are considered a "looser", failure, unfit.

Our conditioning in families, schools, media, society are dominated by this mindset.

Human beings are in this way programed to get "high" on goals, on "doing in order to get...". But then if and when we get there, the moment of victory and ecstasy goes away, and becomes a memory, and we are confronted again with this strange moment. What to do then? Chase another goal. Buy that car, get that gadget, play some video games, watch some movies, get some pleasure, sex, gratification, intoxication, endlessly searching for that sense of peace and contentment which never comes.

The world economy needs human beings to be in this mind state. It's the only way it can keep running. It would be a disaster to the powers that be if human beings began to realise their ability to tune in with a natural state of mind which in itself already contains the fulfilment we long for.

This dissatisfaction in the human heart is the problem. It turns us into a parasitic virus, a cancer on this planet.

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