How does one distinguish between what one really needs and what one thinks one needs? I feel as though I have spent my entire life dancing somewhere in betwixt these two states of need. I constantly feel as though I need something; whether it be needing an actual tangible thing, a need to do something, or just the need for spiritual enlightenment, I can't escape it. I know that I should not need things that I do not need, and yet I do it anyway. But why? Is it me? Do I have some deep rooted psychological issues about satisfaction? Is my life objective to, as David Hammond drama professor extraordinaire would say, "fill the void"? Or maybe I'm just like every other full blooded American who is motivated the the need to get things, material or spiritual. I suppose if we were all born satisfied, there would be no reason to live, no struggle, no pain, and thus no growth and no life.
And yet this still does not explain how we can distinguish between need need and just need. I mean isn't this understanding the root of Santosha? Contentment. Contentment with oneself and what one is capable of attaining in life. But, content not complacent. And therein lies the true struggle. The needs and the wants are just details and diversions.
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