Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. Does the very act of pursuing happiness rob us of the opportunity to actually experience it? I ask because I've been taught that we cause our own stress whenever we want to be anywhere other than where we are. If it's cold outside, we wish it was warmer, and when it's hot, we want it cooler.
It reminds me of what my uncle once said, "I'm not asking for too much, "I just want one dollar more than I have," which perfectly illustrates the endlessness of the vicious cycle. Think about it: at a certain point in our lives we dreamed of being where we currently are, and yet now that we're here, we wish to be somewhere else, if not physically, then in our spiritual evolution, relationships, careers, et cetera.
It doesn't help that many of the things designed to make our lives more convenient or enjoyable sometimes have the opposite effect in the long run. And I'm not just talking about how I've lost my ability to memorize phone numbers ever since speed dialing was invented, or how Netflix is killing our productivity. I'm talking about how whenever we are introduced to something new and exciting, it makes our lives without those things seem duller in comparison.
We were perfectly fine before cell phones and the Internet, but now that we have them, can you imagine living without? Don't get me wrong, I love Google as much as the next guy, and I'm not suggesting these things are evil or that we need to go back to living in caves, I'm just curious if we are robbing ourselves of contentment by chasing happiness.
If we were to compare this socially acceptable behavior with addiction, it's clear that as our craving for creature comforts get stronger, we keep having to increase the stimuli to reach the same high. People all over the world sleep on the floor, for example, and they don't suffer from the spine and back problems that we experience in the West with all the Tempur-Pedic and Posturepedic options that we have. What's YOUR Sleep Number?
I think the only way to combat this issue would be to learn to crave what we already have, if that makes sense. I'm talking about going beyond accepting or appreciating it, to actually longing for what IS instead of dreaming of what was
or is yet to be. It sounds a little monastic, I know, but perhaps there is a compromise like going to an all-you-can-eat buffet; there is a happy medium between only eating a bowl of rice and the opposite extreme of returning to the table with three fully-loaded plates of every dish available, and then going back for dessert.
And this isn't even my usual spiel about how we need to define what Enough means to us or we will never have it, this problem is not about wanting "more," necessarily, it's about chasing the next thing, whatever it may be. So, first things first: list your priorities, but don't stop there, go ahead and actually prioritize your priorities, because I don't think we can be truly content if we are always
comparing everything to how much better it "could" be. There has got to be a point of exhalation, acceptance, and peace, where instead of chasing happiness, we bask in the glorious blissfulness of contentment. It's up to each of us to find that point. We've all been raised and trained to pursue happiness, so we have this romanticized idea in our heads of what that looks like. So my question for you is: What does contentment look like? And is it possible that you are already there?
Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless and Buddhist Boot Camp. For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com, where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list. We hope you have enjoyed this episode, and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions. Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼