What Buddha and Modern Psychology Has To Say on the Nature of Pleasure and Dissatisfaction (EP-29)
Buddhism say that we should be skeptical of our feelings and thoughts. They are not necessarily truthful guides to reality.
Dear Subscribers,
Kaleidoscope Perspective has been now reframed to Eastern Perspective. I have decided to delve deep into Eastern Philosophy and Eastern Religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Sikhism, etc.
In this newsletter, I will be writing about the wisdom of Eastern religions but the gleanings of ancient wisdom will be sprinkled with a dash of modern science and a pinch of everyday applicability.
I hope you will not be disappointed :)
Buddha said that pleasure and happiness evaporate and it will leave us unsatisfied. But that’s how the brain is designed by natural selection.
It’s been designed on purpose to be that way otherwise our genes won’t get passed on to the next generation and humans won’t evolve as a species.
The short-lived nature of pleasure motivates us to keep pursuing more, pushing us toward survival and growth. Pleasure is fleeting, meant to serve as a short-term reward for actions that benefit our survival.
The food we enjoy encourages us to nourish our bodies, sexual pleasure guides us toward procreation, and our innate admiration for beauty promotes healthy, favorable traits.
In essence, the temporary state of pleasure impels us to continually search for new gratifying experiences, prompting us to innovate, adapt, and ultimately, evolve.
Buddhism says that we should be skeptical of our feelings and thoughts. They are not necessarily truthful guides to reality.
Evolutionary Psychology affirms that our minds are not naturally designed to see the truth but just to survive and pass on the genes.
Our minds are built this way so it is conducive to survival during human evolution and not necessarily for us to have a picture-perfect understanding of the world around us.
The illusion of pleasure keeps us constantly engaged, continually striving for more, innately pushing us towards evolutionary progress.
Consequently, our transitory states of enjoyment drive us towards perpetually seeking diverse rewarding experiences, spurring us to create, adapt, and, ultimately, advance.
Vipassana Meditation is one such technique that helps us to see things as they really are.
So, the way forward is to try to see things as they really are.
Well, it’s quite difficult to do as we have been conditioned as a species for centuries and as human beings for years to see the world as our minds or evolution wants us to see.
Vipassana Meditation is one such technique that helps us to see things as they really are.
Vipassana, derived from the ancient language of Sanskrit and Pali, is a word frequently used in the context of traditional Indian and Buddhist meditation practices. It roughly translates to "insight" or "clear seeing".
We will delve more into this meditation technique in the subsequent edition of this newsletter.