Seeking Pleasure From The World Won’t Bring You Happiness

Seeking pleasure from the world won't bring you true happiness.

So when I was first beginning my meditation practice,

As a young teenager,

And also later on in my early 20s,

I would look at monks and expert meditators who live a very simple lifestyle,

Where they didn't have much possessions and they spent a lot of their hours meditating.

And I would often think,

Why would they live like this?

Isn't their life super boring?

They don't have much external stimulation going on.

And in many ways,

I,

Like many others in Western cultures,

Was taught to seek pleasure and gratification from the outside world.

So this could be in the form of going to bars and parties and clubs,

Which is something I did often,

Or maybe being drawn to make more money or get a better paying job,

Or maybe playing video games and watching TV and movies,

Following the next Netflix show and Hulu show.

However,

As my meditation practice started to mature,

I started to notice a shift,

Where I started to find more fulfillment in my meditation and spiritual life than I did in my worldly life,

So to speak.

So I can now understand the level of bliss that meditators experienced that I couldn't fathom when I was a young teenager,

But you will start to notice that the joys of spiritual life outweigh any kind of high that you would get from seeking external pleasure,

And that's something I will talk to you about in this talk.

So in Western society,

We aren't really able to relate to monks who choose to renounce their worldly life.

We often think it's super boring and why would they do that?

It's a waste of life,

And so on and so forth.

This is because we are conditioned to think in that way because we are told that we should make more money,

We should advance in our status,

We should become more famous and more well known,

And these are the trappings of a worldly life and the byproducts of a worldly life.

And these monks that we look into and look at often live their lives in complete opposition to this,

So all our values are a complete opposite.

Now it may be very hard to see what's so appealing about this lifestyle and why spiritual joy is important,

However we can actually learn a lot about this topic from Prince Siddhartha Gautama,

The Buddha,

Who voluntarily chose to give up his riches to seek a spiritual life.

Now his life story is actually worth looking into as far as Western standards because he had made it,

So to speak,

But if he had voluntarily gave up his lifestyle,

Which was super lavish,

To become essentially homeless and dirt poor,

Literally only owning a bowl for alms,

Like his begging bowl,

And he wasn't mentally ill or anything,

Then this is something to look at because whatever he had discovered as spiritual joy must have been so much greater and more fulfilling than the peak of Western achievement that he completely decided to get rid of his old lifestyle,

So there must be a hidden power there.

And what I'd like to do is read a passage,

At least part of a passage,

From a Buddha's sutta,

Which goes into the extent of his trappings and success pre-Enlightenment,

And why he actually thinks that this is inferior to the spiritual life.

So this sutta is from Majjhima Nikaya 75,

And here he is talking to Magandiya,

Who is a girl in a village,

And this girl is trying to use her beauty to marry a very wealthy high status man,

And in the passage it says that she would marry someone who is no less than a king.

In today's lingo we would probably call her a gold digger,

But this is someone who is really trying to advance in life in the worldly affairs,

And this is what the Buddha had to say to her.

So,

Well,

When I was still a lay person,

I used to amuse myself,

Supplied and provided with the sights known to the eye,

Sounds known by the ear,

Smells known by the nose,

Tastes known by the tongue,

Touches known by the body,

That are likeable,

Desirable,

Agreeable,

Pleasant,

Sensual,

And arousing.

So he clearly had to experience all these things through his senses,

And he had no problem getting all these needs met through the senses.

And then he further expands,

I had three stilt longhouses,

One for the rainy season,

One for the winter,

And one for the summer.

I stayed in a stilt longhouse without coming downstairs for four months out of the rainy season,

Where I was entertained by musicians,

None of them men.

So the Buddha,

This standard was super rich,

He had three houses,

And in some translations,

Instead of stilt longhouses,

They say palaces,

So it gives you an idea of the lavish lifestyle he's living.

He had three houses,

And he wouldn't even go downstairs,

Because he had no need to.

All his whims were taken care of,

And he had dancers entertaining him,

And all his physical needs met,

And he was fed,

And all that.

So he was completely entertained,

And met all his desires.

He later expands,

Sometime later,

Having truly understood the origin,

Ending,

Gratification,

Drawback,

And escape from sensual pleasures,

And having given up craving and dispelled passion for sensual pleasures,

I got rid of thirst,

My mind peaceful inside.

I see other sentient beings who are not free from sensual pleasures being consumed by craving for sensual pleasures,

Burning with passion for sensual pleasures,

Indulging in sensual pleasures.

I do not envy them,

Nor do I hope to enjoy that.

Why is that?

Because there is a satisfaction that is apart from sensual pleasures in unskillful qualities,

Which even achieves a level of heavenly pleasure.

Enjoying that satisfaction,

I don't envy what is inferior,

Nor do I hope to enjoy it.

So this is actually very interesting,

Because the Buddha,

As you can probably tell from this passage,

Led a very lavish lifestyle,

Where he was completely immersed in the sensual world of the pleasures,

And everything he could experience through his senses,

He could.

He could listen to nice music,

He could see beautiful sights,

He could smell beautiful fragrances,

He could taste amazing food.

So basically he had all his needs met,

And almost to the extreme,

Right?

So he's coming from that position,

And basically when he went on to his search for the cure for suffering,

And went on his journey,

He went on the spiritual life where he got rid of all his riches,

And voluntarily started to seek out spiritual joy.

And once he had discovered the pleasures of looking inwards,

He then later realized that this is far superior from anything I can get from the worldly life.

So this is something,

And even after he's achieved this,

This inwardly focused and inward joy,

He didn't choose to come back to his old life.

He didn't say,

Okay now I experience spiritual freedom,

Okay let me go back and live in this house again,

And let me go back to this life where I juggled between houses,

And I'm a rich person.

He said no,

Actually let me continue living in this lifestyle of being a monk,

Because there's so much joy that comes with the spiritual journey,

And he actually does not even want to go back to his old life.

So that's kind of crazy to think about,

That things that we want to chase so much in our world is something that he doesn't even want to go back to.

And this is something that we can really understand,

That he was someone who had everything,

But just chose,

That he just said that it wasn't worth it.

So none of the pleasures we can get from the external world can really satisfy us,

And what will satisfy us is looking in words and experiencing the joy of his spiritual practice.

Now I've personally experienced these very high meditation states,

And they can be supremely blissful.

So if you practice the jhanas or loving kindness practices,

This is such a high exalted state.

In the first jhana,

Which is,

If you're not familiar with the jhanas,

Jhanas are basically high meditation states where you're completely absorbed in a particular state of being.

So in the first jhana,

And there's eight jhanas,

The four first jhanas are form jhanas,

And the last four are immaterial jhanas,

So formless jhanas.

So in the first jhana,

Almost every single inch of your body is flooded with bliss or rapture,

Known as piti,

So that's spelt p-i-t-i.

So in this high exalted state,

This is much stronger than a buzz you'll get from drinking coffee or watching your favorite TV show.

I mean it's very hard to describe unless you've experienced it,

But every single cell is filled with pleasure in this meditation state.

So once you experience it,

It's very hard to go back to mindlessly scrolling through Facebook or watching TV or video games,

Right?

Because you experience such a powerful emotion just from looking within.

Now this isn't the final step,

So this isn't the highest form of joy either,

Because as you progress through the jhanas,

Through the different meditation states,

You'll actually notice that the intensity of the first jhana actually becomes replaced with a cool and calming quality of the second jhana.

So we're not trying to look and stay into this very high buzzy kind of feeling,

Because actually a lot of meditators report that this kind of feeling is a bit much.

It's almost painful to have like pleasure seeping through every single pore of your body.

Believe it or not,

If you're not used to these states,

It can be hard to fathom,

But if you have,

You can really see that the first jhanas is nice because it gets you energized,

But you can't really stay there too long,

And you do want to progress to more peaceful states.

So as you progress to the third and fourth jhana,

You become incredibly peaceful and equanimous,

So you're undisturbed and not moved by things.

And as you rise in these states,

You come to experience greater peace that is far more fulfilling than these little hits of pleasure that you may get.

And this is something you can experience for yourself,

But it does require a certain level of commitment.

So if you're just meditating for say 5 to 20 minutes a day,

You may not really be able to experience these pleasures,

And you may be thinking,

What is the buddha talking about,

What is this all about,

But if you keep practicing,

Maybe you have more of a commitment to try and do like say an hour and a half a day,

If not more of practice,

You'll start to experience this serene joy that surpasses all the worldly pleasures you can get.

Now,

This pleasure isn't the final destination,

It isn't something you want to just rest in all the time,

And this is something the buddha talks about also quite a bit.

It's not the end goal,

However it can be very pleasurable on your journey,

So if you're used to seeking pleasure from the external world like all the time,

It can actually be very beneficial for you to start to experience,

What is this like to look inwards and experience bliss from the inside.

And don't let these expert meditators,

Some of them will say,

Okay you need to do more insight practices or more dry practices,

But I really think that doing pleasure practices is really beneficial also,

So it isn't something to be neglected.

And especially if you're used to seeking pleasure from the outside,

And you could be labeled as an addictive personality perhaps,

Then training yourself to find fulfillment within can actually help you reduce craving for stimulus in the outside world.

So it's a radical change when you start to look inwards,

And it's also very empowering because you know that at any time you can look inwards and be very peaceful,

So you don't constantly need to be looking for things on the outside.

And I won't really spoil it for you,

But you'll start to notice that as you start to look inwards a bit more and experience this joy,

Certain things in your life will naturally drop away,

So your entire lifestyle can actually change just as a result of this practice,

Where things that you normally sought pleasure in will no longer satisfy you.

So I'll let you discover that in your journey.

But just remember that seeking pleasure from the outside world won't bring you the true happiness that can only be found within.

Thank you.