Pleasure and Happiness

Remez Sasson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:14:51 +0000

Pleasure is a state in which you feel good and enjoy what you are doing. It usually does not last long, because life is such that you have always other things to do, like work, cleaning the house, driving somewhere, interacting with other people, etc. you cannot stay in the feeling of pleasure for long.

When you eat some delicious food you derive pleasure from it, but the pleasure cannot last for long, since you cannot go on eating indefinitely, you finish eating the food on your late and the sensation of pleasure wears off after a while. You may enjoy watching a movie, but the movie lasts for a certain amount of minutes. When you read a book you enjoy reading, ultimately you reach the last page.

As you see, all pleasure is time limited.

Pleasure is usually awakened by external stimuli, and is largely physical, involving the five senses, like the smell of good food or its taste, or of the sight and physical contact of a certain person, a story you read in a book, etc.

Though happiness is similar to pleasure in some respects, yet it is different.

Pleasure is emotional in nature, while happiness is a state beyond the emotions and even beyond the mind. In pleasure the emotion are active. While in a state of happiness there is calmness and peace.

Happiness does not depend on external stimuli, since it comes from within, though quite often, it seems as if the source is external.

When do you feel happy? When a problem has been solved, when you receive good news, when a goal has been accomplished, when you earn a great sum of money or when you are deeply in love. For a few moments you feel happy, but what do you feel? It is a state of exhilaration and peace. For a few moments, you feel as if a burden has been lifted, and you feel no fears or doubts, and don’t think about the next thing you are going to do. For a moment there are no thoughts and there is no time. A moment of just peace and happiness You just experience a deep feeling of relief, without any thinking, doubts or expectations. For a moment your mind is empty.

In this “empty state” happiness arises. It usually does not stay for long, since you cannot stay in this state for long. Your mind is not trained to be peaceful, and all the thoughts, desires, doubts, fears or expectations rise back again, hiding the calmness you experienced just a moment ago.

As you see, happiness is a state of inner peace and inner calmness. Everyone seeks happiness, when actually the search is also for inner peace and freedom from thoughts.

Happiness and inner peace come from the same source, from within. Through training one can reach a state when happiness and peace are experienced more and more often. The more one is able to free his or her mind from the compulsion to think all the time, the more one is able to enjoy inner peace and happiness.

How can you enjoy more happy moments in your life? Instead of waiting for external events to trigger happiness, you can bring it from inside you. Since inner peace has much to do with a state of happiness, the more peaceful your mind is, the more happiness you can enjoy. When you are able to make your mind peaceful, through various techniques, and through mediation, you enjoy more happiness.

For more information, and practical techniques and exercises visit:

Tips for Happiness in Daily Life
Peace of Mind Tips and Advice
Peace of Mind in Daily Life

Pleasure, Attachment and Spiritual Growth

Remez Sasson — Thu, 15 May 2008 05:41:51 +0000

Making progress on the spiritual path does not mean that you have to reject any kind of pleasure and fun and live an austere and harsh life. This idea sometimes holds people from taking the first step toward spiritual growth. Walking on a spiritual path does not require that you avoid everything coming through the five senses, and treating yourself harshly and rigorously.

Pleasure and enjoyment do not hold you from making spiritual progress, but the attachment to them does. It is the attachment that has to go. Attachment is a kind of fear, addiction and lack of freedom. It is the fear of loss.

It might seem to you as a paradox, but you can enjoy life, but at the same time stay unattached anything you experience.

It is the inner attitude that is important. Someone, who has progressed on the inner path, can live and enjoy life, like anyone else, but at the same time not be attached to anything. Such a person may not seek pleasure deliberately, but when there is pleasure, he/she can enjoy it while it lasts, without being attached to it. When the source of pleasure is gone, there is no clinging to it or wishing it stayed, neither there is regret and or a feeling of loss.

Here is what Ramesh Balsekar says on this subject in his book “Who Cares?!”:

“The difference between the sage and the ordinary person, in regard to the enjoyment of sensual pleasures, is that while the ordinary person is continually in search of such pleasures, the sage does not hanker after such pleasures, but enjoys them with zest when they happen in the ordinary course of life. The sage does not seek pleasure, nor does he reject it when it happens.”

Ramesh Balsekar also quotes the words the sage Ashtavakra: “Absence of attachment to sense objects is liberation; passion for sense objects is bondage.”

Overcoming attachment and developing detachment lead to peace of mind and happiness.

Remez Sasson Blog » pleasure

Pleasure and Happiness

Pleasure, Attachment and Spiritual Growth