In all these assaults on the senses there is a great wisdom – not only about the addictiveness of pleasures but about their ephemerality. The essence of addiction, after all, is that pleasure tends to desperate and leave the mind agitated, hungry for more. The idea that just one more dollar, one more dalliance, one more rung on the ladder will leave us feeling sated reflects a misunderstanding about human nature – a misunderstanding, moreover, that is built into human nature; we are designed to feel that the next great goal will bring bliss, and the bliss is designed to evaporate shortly after we get there. Natural selection has a malicious sense of humor; it leads us along with a series of promises and then keeps saying ‘Just kidding.’ As the Bible puts it, ‘All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.’ Remarkably, we go our whole lives without ever really catching on. The advice of the sages – that we refuse to play this game – is nothing less than an incitement to mutiny, to rebel against our creator. Sensual pleasures are the whip natural selection uses to control us to keep us in the thrall of its warped value system. To cultivate some indifference to them is one plausible route to liberation. While few of us can claim to have traveled far on this route, the proliferation of this scriptural advice suggests it has been followed some distance with some success. Robert Wright
Some Similar Quotes
  1. Learning to let go should be learned before learning to get. Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it. - Ray Bradbury
  2. Even if things don't unfold the way you expected, don't be disheartened or give up. One who continues to advance will win in the end. - Daisaku Ikeda
  3. It is impossible to build one's own happiness on the unhappiness of others. This perspective is at the heart of Buddhist teachings. - Daisaku Ikeda
  4. Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself. - Daisaku Ikeda
  5. The institutions of human society treat us as parts of a machine. They assign us ranks and place considerable pressure upon us to fulfill defined roles. We need something to help us restore our lost and distorted humanity. Each of us has feelings that have... - Daisaku Ikeda
More Quotes By Robert Wright
  1. We are built to be effective animals, not happy ones.
  2. Being a person's true friend means endorsing the untruths he holds dearest.
  3. Once you the forces that govern behavior, it's harder to blame the behaver
  4. ..various people had long had the feeling that gain through pain was nature's way
  5. Nature has gone to great lengths to hide our subconscious from ourselves. Why?
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