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Concept
Contentment
Summary
Contentment is a state of being where one is satisfied with their current situation, and the state of affairs in one’s life as they presently are. If one is content, they are pleased with their situation and how the elements in one’s life are situated. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to be content with one’s life regardless of the circumstance, regardless of whether things are going as one expected or not.
Many religions have some form of eternal bliss or heaven as their goal, often contrasted with everlasting torment or dissatisfaction. The source of all dissatisfaction appears to stem from the ability to compare experiences and then infer that one's state is not ideal.
In the Bible, there is an account that man's fall from his paradisal state was caused by man eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man's eyes were opened to know the distinction between good and evil (Genesis 3). In other words, when man becomes intellectually developed to distinguish between good and evil, he realizes there is a gap between what he considers good or ideal and what he is experiencing. The perception of this disparity is what creates psychological and physiological tension.
In the Tao Te Ching, this development of man from his primal state of consciousness called Tao is similarly expounded in this manner: "When the Tao is lost, there is goodness. When goodness is lost, there is morality ...". Morality is the intellectual discernment between good and evil. There is a belief that one can achieve contentment by living "in the moment," which represents a way to stop the judgmental process of discriminating between good and bad. However, attempting to live in the moment is difficult because a person's attention is not only distracted by sensory stimuli but also psychological processes that conspire to make them think subconsciously or consciously. This thinking process is involved with memories; hence, the attempt to stay in the present is a ponderous one given that there is a subconscious struggle to break away from memories, especially unhappy ones.
Official source
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