Did You Know that Everything You Do Is in Order to Receive Pleasure?
Our happiness or unhappiness is contingent upon the satisfaction of our desires. Satisfaction of desire is defined as pleasure and may appear in various forms. Fulfilling our desires requires effort. In that regard, Rabbi Ashlag states the following: “It is well known to researchers of nature that one cannot perform even the slightest movement without motivation, meaning without somehow benefiting oneself. When, for example, one moves one’s hand from the chair to the table it is because one thinks that by putting one’s hand on the table one will thus receive greater pleasure. If one would not think so, one would leave one’s hand on the chair for the rest of one’s life.”
Why Sensation of Pleasure Depends on Desire
The intensity of the pleasure depends on the intensity of the desire, but as satisfaction increases, the desire decreases respectively, and in consequence, the pleasure too. If we look into our pleasures, any kind of pleasure, we will see that they all diminish as soon as fulfillment begins. The maximum pleasure is experienced with the first encounter between the desire and its fulfillment. For example, the greater the hunger, the greater the pleasure derived from its satisfaction. However, if we are given food when we are no longer hungry, we will be unable to feel any pleasure and will probably even feel repelled.
Thus, pleasure from something depends on the desire for that something; there is no pleasure in the desired thing itself. As the sensations of fulfillment and pleasure fade, we are prompted to pursue new pleasures.
2 Approaches towards Dissatisfaction in Life
Humanity normally deals with the problem of the dissatissfied will to receive in one of two ways: the first is acquiring habits, and the second is diminishing the will to receive. The first way relies on “taming” desires through conditioning. First, one is taught that every action yields a certain reward. After performing the required task, one is rewarded with the appreci- ation of teachers and the environment. Gradually, the rewards are withdrawn, but the person labels the act as rewarding. The performing itself yields pleasure, since “habit turns to second nature.” We feel satisfied when our execution of the act improves. The second way is primarily used by Eastern teachings and relies on diminishing the will to receive, since it is easier to not want than to want and not have.
At first glance, it seems that we have learned to efficiently use these two methods, as long as we continue to pursue the next pleasure and continue with our daily routine, hoping for the best. Though not obtaining the desired thing might inflict a sense of want or dissatisfaction, in many cases the very pursuit of fulfillment becomes a temporary substitute for the actual filling. When we search, we feel vital, since our desires and goals are renewed, and we have hope of obtaining fulfillment.
Why Lack of Fulfillment Builds the Desire for Spirituality
Yet the more the will to receive grows, the less applicable these substitutes become. The increasing egoism neither enables us to submit to religious and/or moral systems, nor permits us to silence it.
The fifth degree of the will to receive—the desire for spirituality—begins in disillusion. It results from our inability to satisfy ourselves. Sometimes we feel unable to satisfy our desires and remain empty, but more often than not, we seek comfort in knowing that this is how everyone lives, a sort of “sorrow shared is a sorrow halved.” When we can no longer satisfy ourselves, it is the beginning of the fifth degree in the evolution of the will to receive.
Why Disillusion and Depression Are Increasing Today
One of the ramifications of this pursuit of satisfaction and relief is the use of drugs and alcohol. Those are mostly used as means of distraction from the bleak reality, but the consequent addiction to them becomes a serious problem in and of itself. Extreme cases of disillusion end in increasing numbers of suicides. In fact, depression and drugs can be described as modern day maladies, and modern medicine is helpless when confronted with the roots of mental diseases such as depression.
Nevertheless, depression is only an expression of the newly evolving degree of the will to receive in humanity. This new desire demands fulfillment, though for the time being it is unclear what that fulfillment is and how to obtain it. Frustration caused by a sensation of emptiness compels humanity to run amok seeking fulfillment and is the root of the con- temporary international crisis and worldwide terrorism.
Why Kabbalah Is the Means to Transition Out of a Life Full of Dissatisfaction
We are standing on the threshold of yet another phase in the unfolding of the fifth degree of the will to receive. Until today, we have managed to cope, either by one of the above- mentioned ways or by escape to alcohol and drugs.
Though our current state may not be at its best, we tend to believe that relief will come if we only obtain one of the familiar pleasures: sex, money, honor, or knowledge. Yet, we will soon find out that we will have no more role models and no idols to look up to. We will be utterly disillusioned with our existence in the world and lose hope of ever finding peace of mind. Moreover, we will be convinced that even if we are reborn into completely different conditions, we will still find no rest.
Seeking to remedy our souls and trying to understand the meaning of suffering and the meaning of life, we are pushed beyond this world, beyond the boundaries of our reality that offers pleasures that do not fulfill this new, incomprehensible desire. In fact, the question we face pertains to our origin, our root, whether there is a guiding hand in our life, and if there is, whose is it and what does He or She want? It is only through the wisdom of Kabbalah that one may find the answers to these essential questions.
“The Ultimate Remedy to Depression, Disillusion and Dissatisfaction In the 21st Century” is based on the book, Awakening to Kabbalah: The Guiding Light of Spiritual Fulfillment by Dr. Michael Laitman.
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