Q: If abiding happiness born of deep meditation is so good and real, why do people settle for the brief and cheap pleasures of life?
A: There is a variety of pleasure and even happiness that accompany many of life’s experiences, like expressing one’s talents, enjoying sensory pleasures, extending one’s kindness. Everyone knows, however, that these positive results are transitory and must be generated again and again to reignite them.
Regardless, most people would rather reactivate the temporary pleasures than seek to discover the source of these temporary pleasures and activate that source. Indeed, most people don’t even conceive that such a prospect is possible. And, if they did, most would not be willing to endure the cost of such an endeavor. As Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, his disciple in the Bhagavad Gita, “of 1000 people, one seeks me, of 1000 who seek me, one finds me”. This sad pronouncement is echoed 500 years later in the Bible, by Jesus, “The path to death is broad and many take it; the path to life is narrow and few take it”.