I can’t end without a final word on need, the offspring of fear. Fear is the mover and shaker behind all life’s doings. A solid understanding of this primal emotion will help make sense of the rest. If the previous A final word on fear section didn’t suffice, a few of these observations on fear may help: Even a little progress is freedom from fear, p.30; Fear is the Bottom Line, p.139; Reward, Fear & Need, p.181; Fear Rules, p.186; Fear & Need Born in Nothing, p.486.
I now see that Newton’s third law of motion, For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, effectively applies to fear and need as well. I skirted around this in my post, Science, Religion, Truth, p.136. Now, in reviewing this connection to Newton’s third law, although impossible to prove, I’m convinced that need is the equal and opposite reaction to fear.
And then there was need: A close scrutiny of need, or really needs must, helps reveal how life works, i.e., the process that accounts for how life plays out for us, and all of life really. Briefly, it goes like this:
A need (desire, expectation, urge, wish, want, etc.) for something—anything—creates life meaning when an animal is moving to achieve it. This process unfolds like this: need -> movement -> meaning. Although, from the beginning, it actually evolves from fear, i.e., fear -> need -> movement -> meaning. This sequence reveals the framework biology uses to get its job of survival done. Considered at the most basic animal level, this is how it plays out:
The body ‘fears’ starvation and dehydration. This anxiety evokes primary needs, hunger and thirst. These needs push animals (including us) to movement aimed at resolving the fear. The playing out of this dynamic instills in the animal’s awareness as sense of meaning and indeed, happiness. In humans, our desires and expectations are simply an emergent property of these primary needs (see Tao As Emergent Property, p.121). Note: These and offshoot secondary needs (e.g., sex and social connection) receive a boost by the sensory pleasure that satiating them delivers. No wonder pleasure is often mistaken for meaning and happiness.
Happiness? When you think about it, happiness really amounts to living a meaningful life. Lacking a sense of meaning, life feels pointless and depressing, which may make life’s pleasures even more enticing. Thus, we could rewrite the complete progression this way: fear -> need -> movement -> happiness. This shows why ideas, pleasures, objects, or money alone never bring happiness. They only are meaningful when they are an integral part of the flow. For example, if a fear of poverty drives your need to work hard (movement) you will feel life meaningful, and probably end up with money as well. But, it is the need driving the movement that instills meaningful happiness, not any resulting wealth. The more focused the need, the more likely it results in concerted movement toward satiating this need, all of which instills added life meaning.
There is science that supports the link between a meaningful life and genuine happiness. Namely, psychological research shows that gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. What could feel more gratifying than feeling life meaningful? Interestingly, the two create a type of virtuous circle: Gratitude helps people feel positive emotions, relish life experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. All of which make for meaningful life experiences. (See Natural Happiness, p.404)
And sorrow? The problem for humans occurs when desire (i.e., need + thought) lacks focus and is conflicted, with some needs at odds with others. It is quite easy to see why our species can experience some difficulty achieving life meaning (happiness). This is why we, unlike other animals, often feel we need spiritual guidance. The Tao Te Ching offers the finest and undoubtedly the most inscrutable guidance humanity has thought up, such as here in chapter 48, Doing knowledge, day by day increase. Doing the way, day by day decrease. Decreasing and decreasing, Use until without doing. Without doing, yet not undone.
This is where any wealth achieved through the life process described above (i.e., fear -> need -> movement -> happiness) easily becomes too much of a good thing. Wealth frees individuals from primary survival fears and needs. This freedom from primary survival necessity allows fear and need to scatter off in numerous divergent and multiplying tangents, diverting movement and meaning out of the present moment and into future wishes or past regrets. This leaves usDoing knowledge, day by day increase rather than simply Doing the way (i.e., primary fear -> need -> movement -> meaning). (For more, see Core Issue of Human Nature, p.587.)
At some point, the easier life gets, the harder life becomes. Ironic at first glance, yet not when considering evolution’s underlying principle: Life evolves with an innate incentive (need) to act (movement) to solve life problems and survive (meaning). The instinct remains, even as we eliminate life’s primary need related movements, like hunting & gathering. This allows the instincts driving us to pursue and dwell on more intangible and diverse matters. While often stimulating, this is also emotionally destabilizing.
Civilization disrupts life’s equation: All living creatures have a universal fear (entropy) creating and driving their needs. Physical survival and social survival are the fundamental factors that most influence fear and need in social animals. While universal, this fear and the resultant needs can vary greatly between individuals. Whatever the fear and need are, they drive movement, and that dynamic of movement bestows a sense of life meaning, which essentially imparts genuine happiness.
When circumstances don’t evoke these strong survival emotions at a basic practical level, fear and need ‘find’ other ways to manifest themselves, taking on myriad forms. Every aspect of civilized behavior exemplifies this. Again, wealth, a core feature of civilization, allows one to circumvent many of the down to earth ways of channeling practical survival fears and any ensuing needs. You might say this is the hidden high cost of wealth. Note, wealth in a fundamental sense is the condition that allows an individual to avoid the harsher realities of living in the wild. In that sense, all humans are wealthy to a degree.
People are inherently pulled to place their eggs in either the physical or social survival basket. In ancestral times, that would function well, as circumstances would offer many opportunities for both physical and social needs to express themselves fully in balanced ways. Yet, these are no longer ancestral times, which makes feeling life truly meaningful problematic for everyone to one degree or another. Where do we put our eggs now?
Each of us is now ‘responsible’ for finding a meaningful way to move through life… to find happiness. Deeply realizing the equation for happiness may make it more likely to do what is necessary. Following desire and pleasure do result in movement, at least short term. The more enduring path is the one laid out in Buddha’s Fourth Truth: There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty.
When one truly knows (Right Comprehension) what is at stake, meaningful movement (Right Action) becomes unavoidable. For example, if you truly realize driving in the rain is dangerous, you can’t help but slow down. Lacking that realization, you drive fast and risk having an accident. Frankly, it all hinges on the knowing that cannot be taught, but only realized through personal experience.
Do the way, practically speaking: A genuine sense of personal duty brings the deepest life meaning by focusing need in one direction, moment by moment. Such focused need naturally drives movement (action) which instills life meaning (happiness). Again, as Buddha put it, “There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty”. See Buddha’s Fourth Noble Truths, p.604.
Using this progression (fear, need, movement, meaning) as a kind of life mantra helps me manage daily life more smoothly… as long as I’m ‘touching’ it, of course. Awareness of this basic life dynamic helps nip conflicting desires in the bud. The hitch here is maintaining a ongoing awareness of this dynamic process, and especially, adapting as much desire (a.k.a., need / fear) to duty as possible. The beautiful thing here is how just knowing the underlying causes for any despair I feel can help. Like the previous ‘driving in the rain’ example, once I know what’s happening, nature compels me to conform. Chapter 3 hints at this, Doing without doing, following without exception rules. Chapter 27 and 70 also speak to this approach, “This says he follows the pattern honestly” and “Knowing self is rare, following self is noble”. It all comes down to knowing the pattern (a.k.a., life’s equation) and honestly knowing self.