"As good as it gets"? - Really?

     Happiness consistently eludes us as long as our understanding of happiness is limited, by and to, a common level of consciousness ("ignorance").

     The Shorter Discourse on the Mass of Suffering indicates that repeated bouts of greed, hatred & delusion cause anguish, and that at the very root of this spiritual anguish is sensual desire (kama). 
     Sadly, most of us already “understand that sensual desire provides little gratification and often leads to much suffering” but because we’ve never experienced anything better, we "remain in thrall to the joys of sensual desire.” 
     And how can we experience the transcendent bliss we're really after? Deep states of meditation.

       Stephen Batchelor. “After Buddhism. Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age.” Yale University Press, New Haven, 2015.

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To Be, or Not to Be ...

     "Being is that which disturbs our insistence on remaining in the life-numbing realm of our secret desperation. It is the itch that cannot be scratched, the whisper that will not be denied. To be, to truly be, is not a given.

     Most of us live in a state where our being has long ago been exiled to the shadow realm of our silent anguish. At times being will break through the fabric of our unconsciousness to remind us that we are not living the life we could be living, the life that truly matters. At other times being will recede into the back-ground silently waiting for our devoted attention. But make no mistake: being — your being — is the central issue of life."

        Adyashanti "The Way of Liberation" 2012 ebook,

        which may be downloaded: http://www.adyashanti.org/library/The_Way_of_Liberation_Ebook.pdf

Softening the Anguish of the Hungry Life

      “Each hunger has an associated fear. The desire for pleasure has as its handmaiden the fear of pain, the hunger for being seen is shadowed by the fear of invisibility, and the hunger for escape brings with it the fear of engagement and intimacy. 
     At the root of all these fears is a terror of emptiness, the concern that this self – personal or social – will die in a cold nothingness. This terror is usually kept beneath the surface of consciousness, recognized only by its surface manifestations: an avoidance of being alone, the fear of being criticized, a pulling back from close relationship. 
     In all three cases, the fading of a hunger means the fading of its associated fear, and the fading of a fear brings the fading of its associated hunger. This is because the hunger and the fear are two facets of the same thing. 
     And when the meditative mind sees the root fear and meets it with acceptance, it begins to diminish – and all the hungers dissolve with it. With such fading, relationships cease to be powered by longing and desperation. The anguish of the hungry life softens.”

     Kramer G. “Insight dialogue. The interpersonal path to freedom.” Shambhala, Boston, 2007. http://metta.org/