The Sea of Pleasure
I've been forced by the heavy thunderstorm to take refuge in a mall. I was driving back from a lunch gathering with a couple of my university mates when it started pouring. I couldn't go anywhere else without a sheltered parking. But here I am now, with a warm mug of Americano at Starbucks, watching the rain falling heavily outside, ready to type my reflections of the week.
As always whenever I gather with my university mates, we would end up talking about the bad lecturers we had during our time at the premier local university. There were some good professors but unfortunately those were few and far between.
Teaching is not an easy job and we would have been more forgiving if they had at least made an honest attempt to do theirs. Unfortunately, many did not even do the basics. Whatever I learned in university, was mostly through self-study, driven by the pressure of the final examinations.
University was a rather disappointing experience for me. Thankfully, there was a saving grace, which came in the form of the main library. For the first time in my life (this was before the age of the internet), I could find books on any subject that I was interested in.
Even though I was an engineering student, I found myself spending most of my time in the humanities section of the library. I read books ranging from the alliterative poems of Dylan Thomas to the mystical writings of Sri Aurobindo, from the philosophical expositions of Emmanuel Kant to the dirty limericks by Isaac Asimov! It was the house of wisdom and the nursery of my intellectual development.
The library exposed me to a wider world of intellectual pleasures which had hitherto eluded me. It started me on a journey of learning which I am still pursuing even now. One might be tempted to ask: of what practical use is all these knowledge?
Non whatsoever! And I certainly was under no illusions anything that I read had any practical purpose. I was simply a hedonist, pursuing pleasure, albeit the intellectual kind. It stemmed from an undying curiosity that could never be satisfied because each door opened led to many other doors. It was and still is both a blessing and curse.
We are all dopamine junkies, chasing after the promise of pleasure, be it material, emotional, intellectual or spiritual. The satiation that comes from the release of serotonin is all but too brief; we are immediately driven again towards this endless pursuit of pleasure.
We however should not think that we are simply its slaves. This craving for pleasure is the propelling force of nature that drives the human race towards over-greater heights. It may not lead necessarily lead to contentment, and very often it ends in despair and emptiness. But one has to dive deeply into this sea of pleasure to understand its essence. One cannot learn how to swim without ever getting wet.
