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The natural joy that arises from the destruction or pacification of karma is true happiness. This happiness cannot be attained through any other means. ||18||
You might say that the inhabitants of heaven experience happiness from their families, wealth, and other possessions, but the Ahamindras do not have these things. How can they be happy without them? To answer this question, we ask two questions: Do those who have families and possessions experience happiness simply from their existence, or from enjoying them? ||187-188||
If you believe that happiness comes simply from the existence of these things, then a king who is sick and surrounded by his wives, wealth, prosperity, and a powerful family should also be happy. ||189||
You might say that happiness comes from enjoying these things. But we have already answered that a man who enjoys his family and possessions, who serves them, experiences great toil and fatigue. How can such a man be happy? ||190||
Look, these objects of enjoyment are like dreams, fleeting and deceptive. How can a man who is constantly in a state of anxiety find happiness in them? The meaning is that first, these objects of enjoyment are not easily obtained by everyone, so one must constantly worry about getting them. Second, once obtained, they quickly disappear like dreams, leaving one constantly in a state of anxiety over their loss. Therefore, it is clear that these objects of enjoyment are not the cause of happiness. ||191||
First, a being experiences great suffering in acquiring these objects of enjoyment. Then, once acquired, he experiences great suffering in worrying about protecting them. ||192||
Then, when these objects are lost, he experiences immeasurable suffering, because he constantly remembers the enjoyment he had from them and becomes very distressed. ||193||
These objects of enjoyment, which are insatiable, perishable, and cannot alleviate the suffering of beings, are to be condemned. ||194||
Just as fire is not quenched by fuel, and the ocean is not filled by rivers, so too, the thirst of beings is never quenched by the enjoyment of objects. ||195||
Just as a man who drinks salty water becomes even more thirsty, so too, a being who engages in the enjoyment of objects experiences even greater suffering. ||196||
The reason is that the soul becomes deluded by the objects of enjoyment. ||185||