There are so many aspects of human existence. Even the most reliable research favors the statement that apart from material existence human beings have intellectual or spiritual existence as well, which flourished the very essence of human lives. Human life is not only the combination of cells but the miraculous amalgamation of conscious building blocks and spirit. I do not define spirit with the assistance of my feeble understanding of the structure of human life; rather I call the life itself, spirit. I call the infinite intellectual capabilities of life, spirit. I call the human ability to experience the objective and subjective truth, spirit. Spirit for me is not unknown. In simple words, I live with it and I can’t live without it.
As far as contentment is concerned, it is both individual and universal. Most of the people waste their time debating the universal contentment and thinking of the ways to guarantee it through various intellectual endeavors. Yet again we find them wandering in the dark room in search of a black cat, which is not there.
Universal contentment is the outcome of individual contentment. An individual instead of talking about the universal contentment should strive to find the key to the door of individual contentment through spiritualism. Soon he will find the bewitching world of contentment opening its arms to welcome him warmly. It is said that it is never possible to keep everyone happy. Same applies to contentment. An individual can only guarantee his own contentment, not of others; and if all the individuals keep on focusing on their own selves it would be possible to make everyone happy; otherwise there is no other choice.
Some thinkers may call the spiritualists as the founders of fantasies and may call materialism as the ultimate source to dig out the secrets of objective world. And, it is also important to note that it is because of materialism that we have so much knowledge about the world and its different aspects. There are different branches of science that keep on explaining different phenomena around us; nonetheless, still there is more to be known about the world and about the human beings themselves. The sciences and the knowledge, that we have, have not been able to dig out the mysteries of human existence. Though they have shrunk the distance between the earth and the distant planets and stars; they have not been able to shrink the distance between an individual and his true self – his spirit.
I think we need to realize this fact that apart from understanding the world around us through limited knowledge; it has to be felt; it is to be experienced through spiritual unification. It is to be understood through deep meditation, closed eyes and open heart.
If a full moon dances in the flowing water of a river, what is the need to go through its science? Why not to enjoy it? Why not to get spiritual contentment and nourishment through it? Why not to be a part of it? And I believe the best way to understand any phenomenon is to be a part of it, not to be an observer like materialists but to be a true spirit of that phenomenon.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, in this regard, says, “Satiety depends not at all on how much we eat, but on how we eat. It's the same with happiness, the very same...happiness doesn't depend on how many external blessings we have snatched from life. It depends only on our attitude toward them. There's a saying about it in the Taoist ethic: 'Whoever is capable of contentment will always be satisfied'”.
On the other hand materialism just talks about experiments but never experiences. It just marvels at the changing phenomena but never knows them truly. It just talks about contentment and tries to understand it as an observer but never experiences it. It is like the spectator who keeps on analyzing others but never avails the chances of enjoying with the performers by being a part of them.
At the same time, materialistic thinking makes the human extrovert and think of the world around them. They, being materialistic, seek the contentment around them, in the system, in the objects, in money, in others; not in themselves, where the true contentment exists. Jean Paul Sartre had said, “Hell is other people”, which clearly indicates that running after others and in general being extrovert cannot guarantee any sort of contentment. The way to contentment is only through the spirit and through the self.
It is really difficult for materialism to guarantee any type of contentment because it can never think of miracles, while life and its complexities are miracles. Even contentment is a miracle which can be attained through spiritual experiences not materialistic interpretations. And we have to turn to such experiences before it is too late; as greatly explained by Kazuo Ishiguro, “All I know is that I've wasted all these years looking for something, a sort of trophy I'd get only if I really, really did enough to deserve it. But I don't want it anymore, I want something else now, something warm and sheltering, something I can turn to, regardless of what I do, regardless of who I become. Something that will just be there, always, like tomorrow's sky. That's what I want now, and I think it's what you should want too. But it will be too late soon. We'll become too set to change. If we don't take our chance now, another may never come for either of us.”