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The essence of pleasure-seeking is neediness, a longing for satisfaction, a feeling of living in a vacuum, always moving toward pleasure-giving objects, always grasping at straws. The seeking of pleasure is probably our greatest cause of suffering. When we closely observe mind, we notice that if there is an object we want, inherent in our wanting and not having it is a feeling of dissatisfaction, a tightness, a discomfiture. It is interesting to notice that even in this satisfaction of desire, gratification occurs not in the possession of the wanted object, but in the cessation of the painfulness of desire. In the possession of that thing, there is no inherent satisfaction. Much of our experience of pleasure is overcoming the discomfort of desire. When the wanting has ceased and the object is at hand, there then arises the pain of wanting to keep it, wanting nothing to mar it, to break it. (Steve Levine, "A Gradual Awakening")

The Spiritual Networks community I tend to hang out in shut down for a few days to upgrade their servers. Amazingly, I felt irritable during this period. Looks like I am hooked on having spiritual discussions just as all of us are running after some pleasure-seeking activity or another. Well, so what if true; it just confirms that I am as human as everyone. Still, there is something all of us can do when we observe these cravings in us, we can re-connect with the silence within. Meditation does this for us. Blessed are the 20 minutes each day when our mind in fact has a shot at becoming still.