|
To be satisfied or to be content with something is to find a relationship
based on exploitation. To find one's satisfaction with something
or in somebody is a self-indulgence at the cost of the other. The
other has become the means, which we try to separate from the end,
our own pleasure. It may be that the otter does not mind so much
to be exploited, as for instance in hired labour, when his conditions
without being exploited would be perhaps even worse. And that is
the usual relationship in present day society, which is certainly
not based on contentment.
Contentment may be obtained through religious practices,
but then religion is not the end; it is only a method. And in thus
separating the means from the end for the sake of contentment, only
conflict born of opposition can be the outcome. As long as contentment
depends on relationship, there is only self-gratification.
But there is a contentment which is not the end of a search for
satisfaction, but which is at the beginning of realization. This
contentment is totally unconditioned and free. It is not born from
desire, as an image discovered in memory. To be totally unconditioned,
contentment cannot be brought about through possessions or
through the renunciation thereof. It is not an acquisition through
virtue or practice.
When in passive awareness the mind is still and silent in the understanding
of the empty movements of thought through memory into ideal, - when
thought is still and silence is perceived, there is contentment
in the utter void of self, in the total absence of desire in self-projection,
in the complete stillness of the absence of fear; - and in that
contentment there is truth, the joy of contentment without the pleasure
of satisfaction.
Satisfaction is always the fulfillment of a desire, which is but
a thought in anticipation of acquisition. It is in acquisition that
the 'I' can grow and become, and thus it is in satisfaction that
there is a search for security and fulfillment of an ideal. But,
contentment is in the present and has no dealing with satisfaction,
with ideals, or with self; and thus it cannot be made or acquired,
and is not subject to moods and methods. It is based on understanding
and seeing things as they are.
|
