A problem with people is that they are never satisfied. In fact, belief in, and pursuit of, the “American Dream” only makes it worse, as we are conditioned to always want more, that more is better. A rolling stone gathers no moss. Thus, we are taught that it is wrong to be satisfied with what we have. One is wrong, bad, a Commie, if she does not want more than what she has. In fact, though, the truly happy person is she who is always satisfied with what she has.
It is not that we must never change, or never strive for the change that comes with awareness. On the contrary; change is good and natural. Rather, the trick is learning to not crave change born of denial, greed, or envy. The grass may always look greener, but it is also always a mirage.
One must learn to not crave change born of unmindful and thoughtless dissatisfaction. It is important to ask oneself why one is dissatisfied, for this will root out what one wants. This is where the issue lies, for it is what we want and think we need that must be examined and looked at with an open mind and heart, undistorted by the illusions of our so very conditioned existences.
Shine a light on your motivation, on why you want what you want, and whether it is really something that you want or need. For in the “why” lie the answers that confound one, and are the cause of dissatisfaction. This is a key to happiness. It is not a grudging, self-pitying resignation; it is learning true satisfaction, which can only come from a thirst for truth, seeing things as they really are. He who is unsatisfied with what he has will forever be unsatisfied. But, he who is never satisfied with what he knows, he will learn true satisfaction. For he will eventually learn that having, ownership (in any form), is but an illusion, a phantom carrot that can never be grasped; it is a craving that will never be satisfied, for he who wants to “have” will never have all he wants to have. Only he who no longer needs to “have” can truly be satisfied, for he does not (feel the) need to be satisfied.
This is one way that the “American Dream” is a farce and a lie, and on the absolute wrong track, for it tells us that we need to have certain things to be happy—money, and the things that money can buy being central. Money allows the so-called pursuit of happiness. This society is based on that idea.
As I have discussed elsewhere, money is only “needed” in a societal context in which money is set up as the middle-man between people and the necessities of life. We have let economics dictate (and thereby be mistaken for) ideology rather than the other way around.
In this kind of capitalistic society the people live to serve the system, the economy, and, in kind, those who have the most money and the economic ideology that keeps the great majority of people running on the hamster-wheel. The system is set up to sell us things, and our job, our raison d’être, is to buy stuff and sell—or help other people sell—stuff. Those jobs that are not about buying and selling stuff are allowed to be there to support the system in one way or another—the ultimate point of that job (regardless of what one might like to tell himself) is to serve the system. (An example of this is the charity organizations that serve to get homeless people in a position where they can plug themselves into the system with a patronizing pat on the back.) Anything that doesn’t fit into these modes necessarily exists at the fringes.
I think that the system of society should rather serve the people, and be set up in a way to help everyone who wants to pursue enlightenment and freedom. That cannot happen in a capitalist system in which the people serve the system. It’s backasswards. The American Dream is a lie. Everyone knows the cliché “money can’t buy happiness,” but no one seems to believe it or live it. At least it is very difficult, if not impossible, to live it in this society. Too bad, because, like most clichés, it happens to be true.
Happiness is not a place or a thing, it is being who you really are, being awake, which has nothing to do with our surroundings, let alone what we “have” or do not “have.” Home is something that is inside of you, it is not a building or a city. The U.S. ideology believes in and espouses the “pursuit of happiness” only as long as a (major) part of that pursuit is the pursuit of money to spend. America champions freedom and the pursuit of happiness, but only as long as that happiness involves making and spending money. If it doesn’t, and you don’t already have a lot of money in the bank, then you’re going to have a very tough time, and not necessarily in a good way.
I point all of this out not to complain. On the contrary. It is simply to get the truth of things out on the table. Unearthing the truth of things is what the path to enlightenment, and therefore happiness, is all about. I simply want to point out the facts, the consideration of which will of course involve people recognizing that they don’t know what they think they know, that they have been buying and selling fool’s gold. So be it.
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From my personal notes, 11/28/99.
