Life is suffering, it is filled with pain and problems. More for some than others, but the problems of life are unavoidable to everyone. Even the super rich commit suicide or get sick and die young, so we can say that there must be problems that even money does not solve.
The natural response to pain is to seek happiness and pleasures, to make ourselves happy. If you think about it, the things you do to make yourself happy put your mind in a sleep state, a hypnotized sort of mind lost in whatever you are doing. When you watch a movie, are you thinking of other things or are you lost in the movie? Thus hypnotized by the film. Maybe not, but that is the point of going to the movie.
Yet, God has said we should think of Him every second of our life, at least that is the way to find God. So why would God create a system that makes us spend our life in search of putting our minds to sleep?
There are only two possibilities. First, this is a test, and second, the god that created us and this world is a different god than the one that we seek and want to return to. I use the word God simply because it is easy. It can be anything you view as the greater power or realm beyond our simple human existence. Or, you can disregard this paragraph, it really is not crucial to the point of this article. Either way, seeking distractions from pain does not seem to be the correct response.
If we see pain as pain, meaning, if we see situations as good or bad, we will seek happiness, and thus our life is spent in periods of pleasant sleep.
If we see all events as they are, neither good nor bad, and just deal with every event as you would respond if someone tossed a ball at you, reacting instinctively and just catching the ball, even if you are not involved in the game, then tossing the ball back and moving on, there is no good nor bad and thus no need to seek happiness in the normal ways humans do with distractions and activities.
Those activities take time and cost money. To get the money to do them, you have to work harder and longer to earn the money, or deal with problems that are inherent in those ‘pleasures’. Thus you are tied even deeper into the source of pain and suffering, and need more and more pleasures. A never ending downward spiral.
However, if the natural need for supporting your body is taken care of, and you see all things objectively, you will not have pain that needs to be avoided, and you will have a lot more free time to do what is important to you.
The question is, what is important to you?
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