Have we distorted what it means to be truly satisfied and fulfilled?
In my life experience thus far, I have been guilty of this myself and also heard time to time amongst friend circles and social media statements such as “after I have gone to X, Y, Z I will be satisfied” “after I finish that exam/ after I get that job/ after I reach that position in my career, I will be satisfied” “after I get into a relationship I will be satisfied” and also statements such as “now that I have done X, I can say my life is now complete” “I say my life will be fulfilled after X, Y, Z happen”… It feels to me these words “satisfaction” and “fulfilment” have lost their inherent meaning of “that is it, nothing else needs to be done”, and that these fleeting feelings that we have been ascribing to as satisfaction and fulfilment are not even what it truly means to be satisfied/fulfilled. Would love to hear your thoughts and any insights on this topic and please feel free to share any of your experiences 😀
Yes, another real issue 😢. Would like to share one of my day-to-day experiences and maybe you can relate too 😀. I’m not a big fan of Pizza Hut’s pizzas, but whenever there’s a deal, I feel this urge to get one even though I know I wasn’t satisfied the last time. Bhante has nicely explained this “Pizza issue” in several Dhamma discussions 😊. As you said, as soon as we achieve one thing, we quickly move on to wanting the next, creating a cycle of never-ending desire. If we can train our minds to appreciate what we already have and think in a different way of our sense of satisfaction, we might be able to step away from this constant pursuit of ‘more’.
Any other experiences?