We live in a world that works the other way around. The more we study, the more we know of our ignorance, the more experience we take, the less perfectionists we become, and the more money we earn, the more money we need to satisfy ourselves. We live in a race against the clock, chasing a carrot that is tied with a stick to our back and that we can never reach.
Temptation without satisfaction, that is the question.
Our modern life is perfectly illustrated in the myth of Tantalus, whom the Greek gods punished with an eternity of suffering for killing and eating their own son. The punishment, of which we appear to participate, was to be a lake where the water reached chin height, and under a tree with low branches full of fruits, but every time Tantalus, attacked by thirst or hunger was trying to drink some water or enjoy a beautiful fruit, these were removed up or down in such a way that he could not meet their needs.
Again, temptation without satisfaction.
Take for example this time that you aim to buy a car, and by reaching this goal you would enjoy for a short period of pleasure before returning to the usual anguish of everyday life. The reason for this is that after getting used to the novelty of your modern steed there would be no more satisfaction, because your desire is not really the car that you placed (or that I place you) as an goal, but what this represents for you. And what does the car represent to you? Let's follow the thread of reasoning.
If I asked you; Why do you want a car? You would answer me, probably, to transport you more easily. And if I ask you now, why do you want to transport yourself more easily? Your answer would be, to avoid inconvenience. To which I would ask the same question again; Why do you want to avoid the inconvenience? To which you would finally give me an assertive answer that is to be happy. And this is true because all the desires we have tend to happiness. All the things we want and all the goals we set ourselves tend to make us happy. Being happiness the only true objective of human life.
All other desires apart from this, will tend to lead to the same cycle of temptation without satisfaction, placing us in a place where we will ask ourselves when is it enough? And the answer will always be more. All this until we learn to say enough.
Until we put ourselves on top of the pyramid, and place our happiness and that of our relatives as priorities, we will be in an endless race towards an increasingly distant goal, following the absurd example of Tantalus.
If I had to give advice for this point it would be the following; rectify, the goal is not more important than the road. This does not mean that we are going to eliminate our goals, it just means that they will not be our priorities, but our accessories.
Image Source: 1
