Have you ever tried to catch that will-o’-the wisp of “something else” which still dances in the background of your feelings at the end of all accomplished desires? Analyse it: You hanker after something as long as you are not able to get it; but when it is secured, sooner or later you tire of it, and want something else
Even if life gave you at one time everything you wanted- wealth, power, friends- after a while you would again become dissatisfied and need something more. But there is one thing that can never become stale to you- joy itself.
In all your seeking among different things, directly or indirectly, you are in reality seeking happiness through the fulfillment of your desires. You do not want those things that bring sorrow. Neither do you want those that provide a little pleasure in the beginning but sink you deep in remorse and suffering in the end. No matter what your goal, you seek it with eagerness, in expectation of fulfillment by possessing it, and you ought to feel joyous when you actually get it. Then why not seek joy directly? Why seek it through the intermediary of material pleasures and objects?
When you supplicate the favour of short-lasting material things, your happiness depends on their short-lasting pleasures. Material objects and the satisfaction of material desires are temporal; therefore all happiness deriving from them is temporal. Eating, smelling fragrances, listening to music, beholding beautiful objects, touching pleasing things- these are evanescent pleasures, lasting only as long as the sensations of tasting, smelling, hearing, seeing and touching last, or until the mind becomes bored with a sensation and is tempted by a new stimulus.
You do not want a transitory joy that leaves sorrow in its trail when is vanishes. You crave joy that is not merely tantalizing, disappearing like the sudden flicker of gossamer wings beneath a flash of lightning. You should look for joy that will shine forever steadily, like the ever luminous radium.
Yet you do not want enjoyment that has too much sameness; you want a joy that changes and dances, enthralling your mind in many ways, keeping your attention perpetually occupied and interested. Happiness that comes by fits and starts is only tantalizing; pleasures that become monotonous are tiresome; mirth that lasts just a little while and brings sorrow in the end is undesirable; joy that comes momentarily and then flits away, sinking you in state of deepening indifference by contrast, is torturing.
Joy that rhythmically changes all the time and yet in itself remains unchangeable, like an actor who entertains with different roles and poses, is what all of us are seeking. Such joy can be found only through regular, deep meditation. The inner foundation of unchangeable ever new joy alone can quench our thirst. By its very nature, this divine bliss is the only enchantment that can never tire the mind or make us want to exchange it for something else.