All through our lives we assume we have to collect pleasant experiences. We give so much importance to experiences that it seems to define our entire life. Do we not hear people commenting on how a dead person had a rough life or that a dead person had a great life. Have you ever given it a thought? All your life you have been falsely assuming that you are collecting experiences, experiences of all kinds, good and bad. Since, early childhood, one is constantly chasing pleasant experiences or out of curiosity some form of unique or different experience. It is not uncommon for one to state "my wish is to experience that before I die". Whether it is seeing some geographical place on earth, or to taste some unique food, or to enjoy a joyride in the amusement park, or some mind altering substance, or any other form of experience.
Even in the spiritual field, people are constantly chasing experiences. They travel all over the world to meet some Guru or teacher, to see if they can learn the secret of "reaching higher levels of consciousness". In meditation, they may experience a "blue light" or "feeling of bliss" and then they want to replicate that pleasant experience all the time. Sooner or later, they get frustrated because of the inability to maintain that pleasant experience. Nature hopes you will learn the vanity of chasing experiences from this frustration and actually question this whole business of experiencing. Sadly, the opposite is more likely to happen. One is more likely to get even more desperate for pleasant experiences. Is it not amazing?
Based on memory, one can feel as if they actually relive the experience. One gets the false sense of collecting all the experiences in a sort of bag which one feels will be treasured for ever. One can often hear people saying "you must experience this -man, it is awesome". Hearing this, one desperately wants to replicate that same pleasant experience that his or her friend had. Despite all efforts, all experiences are transitory and vanish just as fast, leaving one longing for more (depending on the type of experience). Obviously, one does not want bad experiences! The mind always chases pleasant experiences and shuns painful experiences. The result? One is constantly in search of an everlasting pleasant experience. One becomes a slave of the mind.
You hear of some great spiritual teacher who at least in the photos, looks like a picture of bliss. You wonder if the teacher has some secret that allows him to be in state of bliss. Maybe, if you can follow his advice and do some sadhana (practice), you may, just may be able to reach that "higher level of consciousness" that he is talking about and permanently experience that state of bliss. Really? You can see how easy it is to fall into the trap of chasing pleasant experiences.
Can you really take your experiences with you when you "die"? What happens to all your experiences when you die? Do they remain somewhere? Is not an experience transitory in itself? Are you not dissatisfied with the transitory, the false, the unreal? Is there any value in anything that is not eternal or permanent? Is it not the eternal or permanent or REAL that you are actually in search of? Don't you want the REAL?
What happens to all the pleasant experiences that you had in your dream last night? Poof! Vanished as soon as you woke up. So, would you really chase experiences in the waking state, if you realized that they are just as transitory as the experiences in a dream? If, on realizing that the waking state is nothing but a prolonged dream, would you give the experiences in the waking state any value? Just like in a dream would they not vanish on Awakening?
Would it not be preferable to be AWAKENED from this dream world rather than continue to chase false experiences in this dream world? THINK, INVESTIGATE AND WAKE UP!
