The paradox of satisfaction

[r0ckyreed]

There is an interesting paradox around satisfaction that can be hard to unravel.  On the one hand, satisfaction as in being content with the present moment as it is, is absolutely essential.  But too much satisfaction can be dangerous in that you can easily become complacent with your life as it is such that there is no growth.  I mean if you are completely satisfied with your life and development as it is right now, then it will be very hard for you to grow.  We all type words just about everyday, but some people have hit a plateau.  In the book Mastery, this stage I am referring to is called the hacker stage.  The hacker stage is where you are satisfied with where you are and have no desire to improve.  

I have received some hacker stage vibes from mainstream Buddhist/Taoist spirituality.  I don't think I am alone.  The Buddha by nature tells you to not be attached and stop fearing and desiring things and you won't suffer.  But what followers of this philosophy may not understand is that sukkha and dukkha go full circle.  The sukkha to its extreme becomes dukkha and dukkha to its extreme can become sukkha.  Sukkha = satisfaction and dukkha = dissatisfaction.

Growth requires getting outside of comfort zone.  Growth requires going against complacency.  We have emotions for a reason.  The downsides of certain happiness philosophies such as Buddhism, Jediism, Taoism, etc. is that they are filled with toxic positivity.  This means that these philosophies tend to look down upon negative emotions and only strive to have peaceful emotions.  As a result, emotions like fear, desire, and anger can become suppressed and bypassed.

The point is to use the strengths from fear, desire, satisfaction/unsatisfaction, anger, etc. to fuel your growth.  If you are satisfied with your health right now, how will you improve your health?  The reason why my typing (words per minute) has been the same since high school is because I am satisfied with where you are and have no desire to improve.  Many people fail to reach their fullest potentials in life because of this satisfactory complacency.  However, the paradox I am presenting here is to about striking a balance between having an overall satisfaction of reality, the present moment, and consciousness (i.e., falling in love with life), and to be dissatisfied with laziness, mediocrity, complacency, etc.  

Now, there is nothing wrong with laziness, mediocrity, or complacency absolutely.  It all depends on what you want.  If you are like me, you value growth and living up to your fullest potential.  We all start at level 1.  What is the highest level you want to reach?  My answer (because of my own true nature) is infinity.  I want to continue to grow at reading, writing, contemplating, meditating, health, business, etc. until I die.  I don't want to have an end point.  People often complain of Jason Capital, Andrew Tate, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett and other millionaires for continuing to grow their business and making money.  They are like "dude, just retire, and stop chasing money!"  But what you fail to understand if you argue that point is that they are aware of the satisfaction zone and nobody with a strong life purpose will give it up so easily nor trade it for comfort.  

The idea of retirement is like a form of death and people like Warren Buffett and others may be exactly afraid of that and that is totally reasonable.  Your life purpose is central to your life and it is something that you continue to refine and improve across your entire life. There is no finish line.  Life purpose isn't just about your career, it is your lifestyle and grounding purpose.  It all starts with an overall satisfaction with life,  and a desire to be disciplined.  The paradox can be resolved by if you love yourself completely and are completely satisfied with life as it is, then you will want nothing more than to continue to grow and improve because your infinite nature knows that you are not confined to one level in life.  Confining yourself to one level in life will put you in conflict with your infinite nature.  

What do you think about this paradox?  How do you come to terms with it?  In what areas are you so satisfied that you are satisfied with plateauing?  For me this is my typing speed, math skills, piano playing, walking, driving, etc.  How can you improve if you are satisfied with plateauing?  Of course we spend most of our lives on the plateau, so it is essential to be satisfied with where we are to a point, but it comes to be a danger when satisfaction limits your growth.  Even though it is a movie, Rocky Balboa got to where he was because of his immense desire to improve and his extreme dissatisfaction with his mediocre lifestyle.  It was only in Rocky III that we see the costs of being satisfied -- you can lose your edge and stunt your growth.

For more on the topic, I made a post in the past called "If you are satisfied, then you are doing it wrong."  

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by r0ckyreed

[inFlow]

@r0ckyreed Thanks for the post. I got value from this. Very insightful!

[r0ckyreed]

22 hours ago, inFlow said:

@r0ckyreed Thanks for the post. I got value from this. Very insightful!

Glad that was helpful! Glad to be of service!

The simplest way to say it is to love and honor your own personal growth while also loving who you are now. God didn’t have to create but God did. The same applies to us. We don’t have to create or grow, but we do because it is our nature to.

[Rafael Thundercat]

"This means that these philosophies tend to look down upon negative emotions and only strive to have peaceful emotions.  As a result, emotions like fear, desire, and anger can become suppressed and bypassed." 

Tantra schools embrace all that emotions as energies. It can consume you and lead you to stupid acts but if you own your being you can use any emotion as energy to do work. 

I think Chogyam Trungpa speaks about this in one of his books, maybe the one book with Freedom in the title. This one :

 

I dont know how to explain the concept ,you can read in the book, but I feel and use it many times. Is one of those things you just know how it works when you experience it .

 Once you detach from taking for example one attack from somebody and react in a burst of anger you can transform the energy that was created in the situation and harvest it to use. Same with orgasm energy, you can just have a energy release and feel sleepy after sex, or you can spread the energy into your body and feel like you had drink a energy drink.

Last time it happened with me was a guy who got arrogant with me and I felt the fire in the belly, but instead of reaction I became aware of the fire and breath the energy of that and made it spread to the body, even enjoying the feeling as when you enjoy an orgasm. 

I work in shamanic ceremonies and truly, if you are not able to trasmute energy consciously is very hard to be in a circle with 75 people high in ayahuasca but once you accept all as energy flowing is very good. 

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by Rafael Thundercat
Add book image

[inFlow]

@r0ckyreed Just the other day, while I was doing my physical yoga, I started to look at my routine and contemplated where do I find myself now? Am I comfortable with my routine, and the answer was yes. Then I saw the mechanism of what you described as Paradox Of Satisfacion in myself. This insight will go with me the rest of my life. Thank you!

[r0ckyreed]

12 hours ago, inFlow said:

@r0ckyreed Just the other day, while I was doing my physical yoga, I started to look at my routine and contemplated where do I find myself now? Am I comfortable with my routine, and the answer was yes. Then I saw the mechanism of what you described as Paradox Of Satisfacion in myself. This insight will go with me the rest of my life. Thank you!

Wow! So glad that was helpful for you! Yes, we need to challenge ourselves if we are going to grow. That is one of the main reasons we get stuck in life. Our minds don’t like challenges and would rather do what is known and comfortable. This applies to anything whether it is your chess tactics, exercise, reading, or even your meditation practice. It is important to not just go through the motions. There is no mindfulness in going through the motions. Wishing no you well!

Edited January 11, 2023 by r0ckyreed

[inFlow]

On 1/11/2023 at 4:32 AM, r0ckyreed said:

Our minds don’t like challenges and would rather do what is known and comfortable.

That's when you sort of limit yourself in the mind when you say "This is enough for me" and then after some time you become "average" by not trying to be better at the thing that you are doing. I've been guilty of this for entirety of my life. Now I'am just watching myself every step of the day where is my set limit of comfort toward anything, let it be diet, the way I talk to people, my physical routine etc.