The first and the second noble truths delivered by the Buddha constitute the diagnosis of the human predicament. The first noble truth states that the suffering exists (dukka = suffering or no satisfaction). The second noble truth says that the cause of suffering is clinging and craving for things, which in other words means you keep trying to get satisfaction, but never can.
A rather old, but still very good study on monkeys and the dopamine levels in the brain (1) shows that pleasure is not everlasting. It also shows that the craving gives us pleasure than the actual thing we crave for. From our own experience, we know that if we want something very much and then we get it, we kind of see that the craving was something that gave us pleasure and not the thing itself. After we inquire the item, the pleasure soon starts wearing out. We start seeing flaws in our inquired item and start wanting something new very soon. We are not satisfied again.Such craving is explainable from the point of view of natural selection. Craving allowed us to reproduce and survive. If the pleasure lasts forever, we wouldn’t be looking for food or for a mate. Such everlasting pleasure and satisfaction would eventually lead to our extinction.
So are we ill-fated to keep craving forever? Buddhist third and fourth Nobel truths state that is not the case. There is a way out: a path to your own evolution without going extinct.
References
1. Schultz, W, Apicell, P. and Ljungbergb, T. 1993. Responses of Monkey Dopamine Neurons to Reward and Conditioned Stimuli during Successive Steps of Learning a Delayed Response Task. The Journal of Neuroscience, 13(3), 900-913.
Science seems to contradict the Buddhist position here. Buddhism identifies craving as the cause of dukkha. Is it right to say that "craving gives us more satisfaction"?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that the temporary satisfaction is not due to the fulfilment of our desires but due to the momentary cessation of craving. However, since we are what is the Buddha summarizes the five clinging aggregates, the craving is immediately renewed and the whole cycle starts anew. This is where where the beings in 'samsara' seem to get stuck: They falsely attribute the source of satisfaction to the fulfilment of desires rather than to the cessation of carving, as fulfilment of desires does lead to a temporary end of suffering. The Buddha then proposes an alternative 'path' that leads to the permanent end of suffering by ending craving, because, clearly, fulfilling every desire is not sustainable.
Thank you Prajwal for a very good comment. I have changed “satisfaction” to “pleasure” (note pleasure could also be understood as a craving) in this sentence: "It also shows that the craving gives us more satisfaction than the actual thing we crave for" as I suspect this was the one that could have been misleading. Science agrees with Buddhism. We can’t get satisfied, because not matter the outcome of our craving (you get what you craved for or you don’t) sooner or later it will all turned out to be a disappointment in some way. Thus, craving is suffering. The study with monkeys' confirms that craving is especially terrible to the brain when you know in advance there is a possibility to get something. Such craving releases much more dopamine than when you get something unexpectedly. Thus, you crave and you feel pleasure from simply craving for this thing. If you get it, you get a much lower amount of dopamine than you were getting from craving, so it feels disappointing. If you don’t get, you start craving it more and might start doing strange things to get it (which might lead you to very big suffering). Think of getting in love with someone you sort of think they like you, but you don’t know. You feel the pleasure of thinking about that person, but at the same time you are suffering, because you don’t know if that person can ever be yours. I that case, you want it even more! Now, you finally get to know that that person likes you. Great. You might feel very excited about a day maybe two, but that excitement is gone pretty quickly. Of course, things get much uglier if you never get to be with that person. The craving is extremely costly to our brain (you expected to have someone you can make babies, you put so much effort into this and boom you don’t get it). Now you get to pay the price=suffering.
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