Happiness Forever

I remember as a child wanting a certain toy. I told my mother that if she got that toy, I’d never want anything ever again. It would completely satisfy me. And I believed it – I wasn’t telling her a lie; the only thing that was stopping me from being really happy then was that I didn’t have the toy that I wanted. So my mother bought the toy and gave it to me. I managed to get some happiness out of it for maybe five minutes…and then I had to start wanting something else. So in getting what I wanted, I felt some gratification and happiness and then desire for something else arose. I remember this so vividly because at that young age, I really believed that if I got that toy that I wanted, I would be happy forever…only to realize that ‘happiness forever’ was an impossibility…

This reflection from Ajahn Sumedho is from The Way It Is, pp. 11-12.