True Fulfillment is far different than satisfaction. Most people are looking for satisfaction and have long abandoned any notion of real fulfillment. In their naivety, they might even refer to satisfaction as fulfillment, not realizing that they are digging themselves into an even deeper groove of habit.
In the Dream of the World, satisfaction is treated like gold. This is because people are fixated on their emotions.
That which appears to be so valuable lasts for only a short while. Someone wins the lottery, and maybe for a month, they are super excited. But then they realize that they have entirely new issues. Their holding patterns are still intact, even though they’re wealthy. They’re still not fulfilled.
Part of the issue with Hollywood’s message and modern filmmaking trends is that they cater to satisfaction over truly benefitting the audience. They’ll take an audience on a ride, creating adrenaline and dopamine. This high might last for the rest of the day. It’s like the satisfying crunch that might happen when biting into a delicious taco. They go to sleep and wake up the next day and all of the effects are gone, they are back at their baseline state of being.
A major motivation for people is often to build a good reputation. To be seen in a certain way. To have the experience of being accepted. Or more accurately, to NOT have the experience of being rejected.
A good reputation can certainly be useful and can be a beneficial side effect of living from the essence, but adding merit badges to the vest of our reputation is only ever moments of satisfaction. It is not pointing us toward the essence. The instant gratification and dopamine released in conjunction with gaining reputation points is a false flag. It is not making us stronger. Anything which is not making us stronger is…you know what it’s doing. This is how humans become preoccupied and completely stray from any real developments.
The point of “doing the work” is focused on living FOR the essence and not FOR the reputation. Living for the reputation is living for satisfaction. That is mental slavery. Satisfaction is that moment when the prisoner gets their meal.
Someone living FOR the essence could be available to have a good reputation, but from this perspective being seen simply does not matter. It doesn’t mean a good reputation is not a tool we can use, but when we are emotionally motivated to GET a good reputation this is self-sabotage.
If someone approves of us in some way, it might feel good. And yet, as soon as the next person doesn’t like you, you’ll be depressed again. When you’re satisfied you’re on the high part of the roller coaster. It comes down again.
Real fulfillment is about the journey. Satisfaction is a pleasurable destination. Being fixated on satisfaction is casting aside the real adventure as “unrealistic”,”implausible” or “the odds are against me”. In fact, the odds change drastically when the addiction to satisfaction changes.
We must learn to disconnect our dependencies from other people’s opinions. Someone’s opinion is never a true success.
One of the biggest ways people don’t realize they are pushing away miracles (or any sort of “good news”) is by being surprised by them. Surprise is actually how we subconsciously are saying that miracles are not a fit for our life as we know it. When we have a big upswelling of energy in regard to a miracle it is because it seems incongruent with life as we know it.
And yet there is no surprise in satisfaction. When we become conscious of our reactions to what life gives us, and we shift into alignment, fulfillment is a natural side effect regardless of circumstances.
Joshua
