0 The Art of Not Wanting Anything

Success, having more money and stuffs than what you need, can only mean more entertainment. If it can go on forever, it's boring, if it can't go forever, then you will suffer of not having them. While your life is a journey to be there, to have more than you can spend, to have entertainment all the time, to be in heaven. You will find that heaven is really a boring place and situation. The best journey is the journey to be a master of your own mind. Sidharta gautama had done the journey and he arrived. You know the story but you are not anywhere to learn from it. You are still unhappy because you still want to be happy. Once you drop the concept of happiness and accept this life just as it is, you will be free from this drama of happiness. But if you drop everything and you want nothing, life is no better than death. Actually, happiness is easy to get. Unfortunately, people get the wrong idea about happiness. Most people think happiness needs a lot of possessions, fame, power, and luxury. Real Hedonist is Epicurus. He lived relax and simple carefree life with friends, guess he was truly happy. Most people will never be truly happy no matter their condition. The nature of pleasure doesn't last long. It also soon turns into normal, this is called hedonic adaptation. Life revolves around eating, sleeping, and working. People do not need to work very hard to survive yet they spend their life working long hours to quench their bottomless worry, envy and greed. Wise people live simple carefree life. Most people will call them lazy, running away from responsibility, and so on. Rich people are admired and respected by society. It becomes a competition to be wealthy and abundance. In reality, money can only provide more food they don't need, more vacation and entertainment. Unluckily it can't buy the freedom nor time. More money they have, even more they want. Normal common people need to work at least 8 hours a day in a factory to provide basic needs. The basic needs are no longer foods, simple clothes and a house, but much much more than that. Except you live in seclusion, you need to earn enough for social life. On one side, you must work and earn enough, on the other side, you get older and weaker while your needs get even bigger. You worry your whole life. Even at old age, you still worry about your childrens and grand childrens. You carry your worries to your bed the whole life. The solution to worry and unhappiness is working for yourself to attain mastery. You must have power to feel secure and happy. Entertainment is temporary solution to eternal problem. It works for a moment, but it worsen the situation in long run. You should not waste our time on entertainment. The best way is to enjoy simple pleasure provided free by the nature such as morning sun light or walking in nature. What you need to survive is very little, what you need for happiness is even less. Most worry and fear and greed come from bad judgements.