You may be operating under the assumption that a temporary, pleasurable fix can give you the relief you’re really seeking.

You may be operating under the assumption that a temporary, pleasurable fix can give you the relief you’re really seeking. The fix could be anything from a drug to buying new clothes to seeking praise and attention from others to spiritual experiences.

You can certainly satisfy the sense of deficiency within you temporarily in this way. But temporary pleasures cannot provide deep, lasting relief from seeking. In fact, they perpetuate more seeking.

Each time you temporarily satisfy an urge to feel better, you falsely believe your contentment comes from the addictive substance or activity itself. The mind associates relief from seeking with the substance or activity.

What you are really experiencing in those temporary moments is a brief rest from the seeking toward that addictive substance or activity.

Through resting repeatedly in presence, seeing that the self that is seeking is unfindable and that there is no command anywhere to seek anything, the movement of addictive seeking naturally relaxes. Contentment is realised to be already contained in the present experience rather than in the substance or activity.