Since much of our experience of this life depends of chemical reactions within our body, I think that we do not have a happier life with more material comforts. The pleasure centers of the brain don't work that way, which is why the super rich aren't the super happy. That's why people become shopping addicts, because the endorphins that give us a sense of happiness are limited.
The spiritual masters teach how to gain happiness without the external stimuli of drugs, sex, or material acquisition.
I agree.
I was just looking at a picture the other day of some peasants living in squalor in some godforsaken backwater... I believe it was in Tibet or the desert-y part of northern China.
I mean, these weren't even peasants, these were
nomads. They were tribal people, herding yaks or something. They didn't have a pot to piss in. They didn't have any teeth. There was dirt on their faces. They were wearing clothes that looked like they were woven out of moss or something.
But they were smiling so big and genuine in this picture i saw.
So I was just thinking along similar lines the other day.
At first I was like, "Jeesh. How can they be happy?"
Then I realized, they probably have plenty of comforts in their lives.
They aren't what
I'd consider "comfortable", because they're not what I was raised with.
They're outside my realm of experience.
But their lives are probably happy enough, from
their point of view. Probably as happy as my life is, from mine. They'd probably just be weirded out, disoriented, and sad if we transported them here and stuck them in a suburban ranch home.
Contentment with one's life is very much dependent on brain chemistry, and less dependent on external factors than one might assume.