Finding fulfillment from outside things in my experience is a result of social conditioning in our society. Reminds me of a book I read a while back, ‘Water for Elephants’.
It tells a story of how a baby elephant is integrated into the circus. In its infancy they chain up one of its legs attach that to a stake and place the stake deep into the ground. As hard as the baby elephant tries it can not go any further than six feet in any one direction and it certainly cannot remove the stake.
But it tries over and over many times. Now into its adolescence and early adulthood it tries less and less up to and until it’s a full grown adult. This animal weighing tons could easily remove the stake with even just its trunk but it’s been conditioned to think that there is no way.
That’s what made the story so great for me because that was me. Is me. I had to and continually have to remove the stake in order to experience all that is love and fulfillment. The human condition or the mind is constantly seeking three things.
Survival, Reproduction and Comfort/Pleasure. When I can recognize more fully that I am not my mind nor am I the thoughts associated with the mind, that is when I feel most full.
When I can bring that ‘fullness’ back into the world and use it by means of service and sharing that, that’s when I stay fulfilled. Its a consistent and constant process of refilling the cup.
