Today, we're immersed in the quality of selfishness, seeking to benefit ourselves with no regard for others. Within the quality of selfishness, we sense prepackaged pleasures - food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge and power.
In this world, we understand that pleasure comes at a price. If we want to eat, we have to pay for food; if we want a family, we have to invest time, energy and effort in it; if we want money, we have to work for it; if we want knowledge, we have to study; if we want power, we have to seek it out etc.
Sometimes, people seek greater pleasures than has been 'formally approved' for this world. For example, people use drugs to feel heightened pleasure, but there's a problem.
The problem with drugs is that you borrow pleasure on credit, which puts you in debt. You take from the 'pleasure bank/store' without paying for it. You pay for the drugs with money, but you don't pay for the pleasure that the drugs give you. Eventually, this discrepancy has to be reconciled and you have to 'pay' for the pleasure somehow - which is why people become addicted and then begin to suffer, which is why people experience withdrawal symptoms, which is why people's lives fall apart etc. (It's similar to how collection agencies come after us when we're in debt, and how they can make our lives miserable as they seek to collect what we owe.) This reckoning has to take place because all pleasure comes at a price. As they say, "blood, sweat and tears." [1]
Now, the pleasure of the next world is real. It's a very intense pleasure, which is a direct stream from God. We can only sense this type of pleasure if we're in the quality of bestowal, seeking to benefit others instead of ourselves. We shouldn't seek out this pleasure in and of itself, rather, we should seek to benefit others and the pleasure will follow.
In everything we do, we should seek to benefit others instead of ourselves.
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References:
1. Blood, toil, tears, and sweat. www.en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved Sept 13, 2014.
Copyright © 2014, Carter Kagume. All Rights Reserved.
