Everyone spends their life pursuing happiness.

Some pursue money. Some pursue fame. Some pursue food. Some pursue a passionate love. And many people really do get what they once wanted: they make the money, buy the house, marry the person they most wanted to marry, and eat all the foods they once dreamed of trying.

Yet something strange happens.

After they finally get what they wanted, they are still not happy. Some feel empty. Some become anxious. Some grow increasingly numb. Some even want to escape the very life they worked so hard to obtain.

Everyone thinks they have finally reached happiness, yet so many people remain unhappy.

Where did things go wrong?

1. The Root of the Problem: People Do Not Know They Have a Soul

The answer is simple:

People today do not know that they have a soul.

They do not know they have a soul, and they do not understand that a complete human being is made up of the soul, the body, and the nervous system.

The body comes into contact with the outside world, while the nervous system receives stimulation and produces responses. What we normally call “happiness,” at the bodily level, is essentially the nervous system producing pleasurable signals through the release of certain neurotransmitters. When we taste something sweet, feel warmth, or obtain something we desire, the nervous system produces this kind of pleasurable response.

But that is not the whole of happiness, and it is certainly not the final answer to happiness.

What ultimately determines whether a person is happy is the soul.

The pleasurable signals produced by the nervous system must still pass through the judgment of the soul. If the soul accepts them, the pleasure becomes real happiness. If the soul rejects them, then no matter how comfortable the body feels, the person will not truly be happy.

Take a simple example.

The same piece of sweet chocolate enters the mouth. The body tastes sweetness, and the nervous system produces the same pleasurable response. But if the person’s soul interprets the chocolate as meaning, “He is just trying to dismiss me and get rid of me,” then no matter how sweet the chocolate tastes, the person will still feel bitterness inside.

So bodily pleasure is only a signal.

The soul is the judge of happiness.

If a person does not know that he has a soul, then in his understanding there is only the body and nervous system. He naturally treats the pleasurable signals produced by the nervous system as happiness itself. He then spends his entire life trying to stimulate the body, believing that this is what it means to pursue happiness.

What he obtains is bodily pleasure.

What he truly lacks is the happiness of the soul.

These are not the same thing at all.

This is the real reason people can “get what they wanted” and still remain unhappy.

2. Why Do People Not Know They Have a Soul? Because Science Does Not Recognize It

Why, then, do people not know that they have a soul?

Because we live in an age dominated by scientism.

Today, many people judge whether something is real according to one standard: does science recognize it?

If science says something exists, people believe it. If science does not recognize it, people treat it as though it does not exist.

Mainstream science does not recognize the soul.

In the scientific description of the human being, a person is a collection of cells, a nervous system, and a set of chemical processes. Happiness is described as the brain releasing dopamine. Pain is described as a signal transmitted through the nervous system.

Science does not recognize the soul, so education does not teach the soul. Education does not teach the soul, so people grow up without ever knowing that they have one.

As a result, human civilization as a whole has fallen into the same mistake:

people live as though they are nothing more than bodies.

Science has accomplished extraordinary things in studying the body. But when it dismisses the soul simply because it has not understood it, it leads human beings in the wrong direction.

People believe they are living scientifically and rationally, but in reality they are trying to solve the hunger of the soul by taking better care of the body.

3. Why Is Bodily Pleasure Not True Happiness?

Because bodily pleasure follows one fatal law:

it diminishes.

Bodily pleasure is the pleasure experienced through the nervous system. Yet the nervous system has one obvious characteristic: when the same stimulation is repeated again and again, its response becomes weaker.

The first time you eat an excellent steak, you may think it is one of the greatest tastes in the world. Eat the same steak every day, and a month later it is simply another piece of meat.

But the decline itself is not the most serious problem.

The most serious problem appears when this decline collides with the standard already formed inside the soul.

The soul judges happiness according to an internal standard.

Suppose the first time a person eats chocolate, the nervous system produces one hundred units of “pleasure.” The soul remembers: chocolate equals one hundred points of happiness.

From that moment on, one hundred becomes the standard.

But bodily pleasure diminishes.

The second time may produce only eighty units. The third may produce fifty. After eating chocolate for years, the same piece of chocolate may produce only ten.

The chocolate is still the same size. It is still just as sweet.

But ninety units of pleasure have disappeared.

Where did those missing ninety points go? They became emptiness in the soul.

The soul is still waiting for the one hundred points it remembers, while the body can now provide only ten.

The difference between the two becomes the pain of the soul.

It appears as anxiety, irritation, dissatisfaction, and an emptiness that is difficult to explain.

The same thing can happen in intimate relationships.

The first time a person is with someone he deeply loves, the happiness may feel like one hundred points. The soul then forms a standard: being with this person equals one hundred points of happiness.

But after one year, two years, or several years, bodily pleasure gradually diminishes. One hundred becomes fifty, and fifty may eventually become ten.

The cruelest part is this: the other person may still be exactly the same person. She may even be more beautiful and more attractive than before.

Yet your pleasure has declined, and irritation begins to appear.

You think she has changed.

But perhaps nothing important about her has changed at all.

What has changed is that bodily pleasure has diminished, while the soul is still holding on to the original standard of one hundred points.

That missing ninety points slowly becomes emptiness in the soul.

This helps explain why a woman may marry the most handsome man she could imagine, yet years later still want a divorce. The man may still be handsome, but the soul’s original “one hundred point” standard can no longer be supplied by bodily pleasure.

If, within that marriage, her soul has also never experienced the deeper satisfaction of being understood, cherished, and loved, then once bodily novelty fades, what remains is the gap and the emptiness.

This is the nature of bodily pleasure:

it comes quickly, disappears quickly, and each repetition produces less than before, while the soul remembers the highest point it once experienced.

A person who lives by bodily pleasure therefore has only one option: continually increase stimulation.

More money.

Newer pleasures.

Stronger sensory experiences.

But the stronger the stimulation becomes, the higher the standard stored in the soul becomes, and the greater the next gap will be.

At the end of the pursuit, a person may discover that everything he chased has left him with emptiness.

4. The Happiness of the Soul Is True Happiness

Now consider another kind of family.

Two people may both look ordinary. They may even live with physical disabilities. Their life may not be wealthy.

According to the standard of bodily pleasure, they appear to possess very little.

Yet they may live extremely happily.

They understand each other with a single glance. They support one another through life. Even when they grow old, they still do not want to be separated.

Where does this happiness come from?

Not from the body.

It comes from the soul.

The happiness of the soul comes from what the soul recognizes as true:

I am loved.

I love another person.

My life has value.

The life I am living is right.

This kind of happiness does not depend on appearance, money, or sensory stimulation.

And the happiness of the soul does not have the same diminishing effect as bodily pleasure.

Loving someone does not necessarily become meaningless simply because you have loved that person for thirty years. Love can deepen. A person’s spiritual growth and understanding of life can continue to accumulate.

Bodily pleasure is temporary. The happiness of the soul can grow.

5. Where Does the Happiness of the Soul Come From? From a Correct System of Beliefs and Values

If the soul is the judge of happiness, then what does it use to judge?

It uses its system of beliefs and values.

From the moment a person is born, he continually experiences life and receives information. Through these experiences, the soul gradually forms its own judgments about what is good, what is worthwhile, and what kind of life should be considered a good life.

When the beliefs are right, the soul can more easily become happy. When the beliefs are wrong, a person may obtain everything and still remain unhappy.

For example, if a person’s soul believes that “contentment brings happiness,” that having enough is enough, and that the peace and safety of one’s family are already blessings, then he will not need to pursue endless wealth in order to feel satisfied.

He may eat a simple meal and spend time talking with his family, yet his soul can be content.

But if a person’s soul believes, “The more money I have, the happier I will become,” then he may spend his entire life chasing money.

Whether or not he succeeds is almost beside the point.

Even if he eventually obtains enormous wealth, he may still remain unhappy.

Why?

Because money mainly expands what the body can obtain, while bodily pleasure has limits.

Even the finest steak in the world costs only so much per pound. No matter how wealthy you are, even if you buy seven hundred pounds of it and surround yourself with steak every day, your stomach can still hold only so much, and your tongue can experience only so much pleasure.

The rest of the money cannot buy an equivalent amount of additional happiness.

Swimming works the same way.

If your soul genuinely loves swimming, you may be happy swimming in a small river near your home.

But if what you are pursuing is only stronger bodily stimulation, then even if someone spent ten billion dollars building the most luxurious swimming pool in the sky, after swimming there for a few days you might still become bored.

So:

happiness does not ultimately depend on what you obtain. It depends on what your soul believes.

This is why some people seem to have everything and remain unhappy, while others possess very little and still live with deep happiness.

What determines whether a person is truly happy is not how much the body receives, but whether the soul has developed a correct system of beliefs that allows it to be satisfied.

6. A Civilization Without the Soul Can Only Become a Confused Civilization

This is not merely an individual problem.

It is a problem of human civilization.

Look at the world today.

What does the economy encourage? More consumption.

What does technology pursue? Greater convenience, comfort, and stimulation.

What does media pursue? Capturing attention and making people unable to look away.

What does personal ambition so often pursue? More money, higher status, and greater power.

Much of modern civilization has been built around one central standard:

the satisfaction of bodily desire.

Of course, there are still many genuinely happy people in the world.

Some have harmonious families. Some devote themselves to others. Some have faith and love. Their souls are fulfilled.

But many of them have simply stumbled upon the happiness of the soul without understanding that this is what it is. Society has not made this understanding a central value to be deliberately taught, passed on, and developed.

As a result, true happiness becomes something that a minority of people happen to discover, while bodily pleasure becomes the direction pursued by almost everyone.

A civilization that neither understands nor recognizes the soul has no true goal for the human being.

It can only continue increasing bodily desire:

more wealth, stronger stimulation, greater power.

But bodily pleasure diminishes, while the soul’s standard continues to rise.

The whole society becomes like a person endlessly chasing chocolate: the more he consumes, the larger the gap becomes, and the more anxious and dissatisfied he grows.

This is why different societies can fall into the same underlying problem.

In wealthy democratic countries in Europe and North America, material life is extremely abundant and institutions are relatively developed, yet many people still struggle with anxiety, loneliness, depression, and a loss of meaning. Some appear to possess everything, yet cannot answer why they are alive.

In authoritarian societies, power may be concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, but those who hold power often pursue the same things: power, privilege, and enjoyment.

The political systems may be completely different, but the underlying value standard can still be remarkably similar:

bodily desire is treated as the goal, while greater wealth and greater power are treated as success.

If the direction is wrong, even a good system may only help people move more efficiently in the wrong direction. A bad system can make things worse by allowing the desires of a small number of people to weigh upon everyone else.

So the confusion of human civilization today does not come simply from a lack of money, technology, or even a better political system.

Its deepest problem is that human civilization has lost sight of its own soul.