Get Enjoyment: RH"L1

Quest → Injunction

The existence of the Pleasure Quest makes it evident that merit lies in experiencing pleasure and feeling good. It not only leads to you feeling good about yourself, it also energizes and enhances positivity about the world. At the same time, it radiates out—pleasing companions, lightening their spirits and raising their mood.

However, gratifications sought by the Pleasure-seekers are focused on sensual and bodily experiences. While such experiences are universal and their pleasurable nature is not to be denied, there are many other ways to feel gratified and pleased.

To devise an acceptable Injunction, we must recognize pleasures that reflect human diversity. We must value the good feelings that come from aesthetic, recreational, intellectual, social, emotional and even spiritual sources. So the Injunction is worded: «Get enjoyment». What that means in practice is simply that, amidst all the pressures and problems of life, you should identify whatever it is that gratifies you personally, make time for it, and ensure that you indulge yourself. Have a good time in your own way!

Losses, suffering, and frustrations are our lot, and perhaps the requirement to get enjoyment has evolved to be there as an essential support and compensation.

Potential Misconceptions

  • The Injunction is not about experiencing perfect bliss or permanent happiness. It is rather about ensuring that life overall is not just constant stress and suffering.
  • Having fun in life is not about avoiding pain. There is no loophole that allows anyone to reduce effort, or imagine that losses and frustrations are avoidable.
  • Indulging in periodic escapes alone or with others into sex, alcohol, violence, or drugs is about excitement, not enjoyment.
  • Enjoyment is internally determined and not dependent on external objects or even specific intimates. So enjoyment does not require wealth and luxury: often those desires are products of envy or seduction by advertisers.
  • Getting enjoyment must be both genuine and personal. So it is not about sinking into a crowd ecstasy or simulating pleasure to fit in.

Why Is It So Hard?

If getting enjoyment were as easy as it looks, it would not need to be a permanent Injunction requiring obedience.

Our social development leads us to imagine that what pleases others or is cultural valued should gratify us, and ignoring social pressure is hard. However, enjoyment is personal, so conventions may need to be resisted. There are innumerable ways to find joy and you may have to be determined and even inventive.

Getting enjoyment can also be difficult due to the intensity of our wishes:

  • Wishes can set up excessive expectations that can only lead to disappointment. As a result, some suppress their desire for pleasure as a self-protective measure.
  • Some wishes, like envy and jealousy, spoil pleasure.
  • Excessive reactions to disappointed wishes—anger, resentment, grudges, grievances, embitterment—may also interfere with getting enjoyment.

There are special cases of difficulty. Natural frustrations and sadness can sometimes morph into persistent anxiety and depression. Where a childhood has been excessively harsh and full of suffering, habits of over-seriousness and joylessness may become hard to break. Doing so requires focus and determination.

Originally posted: 16-Nov-2012