How much comfort do we need in life?

Nowadays, sitting in different discussions, I often realize that the human mind has infinite potential and yet it restricts itself to such a narrow band of possibilities. Human civilization has made existence quite comfortable. We get food, water, and shelter quite easily. Information travels so fast over the internet and WhatsApp. We can travel across the continents within hours. We can order the best meal in the town in hours. We get all types of imported food items in our towns. We can travel across the world with a relaxed tourist visa and a wide range of air connectivity. We can read whatever book we want to read over Kindle. We have infinite sources of entertainment available at the tip of our fingers. 

However, all this comes at a price. We can get almost everything mentioned above by spending money. That is why money has taken a key position in our lives and most of us believe that the more we have money, the more our life will be comfortable. I do not think anybody will disagree with this statement. If we have money, we can buy a comfortable home, have food of our choice, stay in the best hotels, visit countries we wish, have bodyguards and security, buy expensive clothes from famous brands, and actually buy powerful positions to have social prestige.

However, do we realize that the more we seek comfort the narrower our life becomes? In fact, comfort is nothing but the repetition of a particular pleasure. There is a very peculiar feature of these comforts. The more we get the comforts, the higher the threshold shifts. By threshold, I mean the threshold of pleasure. Hypothetically suppose a kid gets a pocket money of Rs 10 per day. If he gets more than that, he will be happy. Now suppose he keeps getting Rs 15 daily, his threshold will soon be set at Rs 15 and the day he will become happy only if he gets Rs 15 or more. 

If we observe carefully, there are two things happening together. Firstly Rs 15 will give him the same pleasure as Rs 10 used to give earlier. There will not be much of a difference. Effectively, we will be spending Rs 5 extra each day for no extra pleasure or very little extra pleasure. Thus we end up wasting more time getting the same pleasure. We can see this happening all around. We see the poor kids make their own toys out of the old cycle tires and play around. The rich ones sometimes do not get the same pleasure in imported toys as well. 

Secondly, the "Zone of intolerance" will become wider. Earlier from no money to Rs 10 was the zone of intolerance. Now it has shifted upwards to Rs 15. That is what happens to all of us. Earlier, we used to spend nights without electricity, then a fan became a need then cooler then AC, and now AC at a particular temperature. Now we want airconditioning at home, in the office as well as in the vehicles and in the times to come, we will have airconditioned running tracks.

Still, we want those extra comforts for ourselves and our kids. We keep earning more and more money the whole of our lives in an automated manner without ever evaluating the real value of this "extra" money in our lives. Not only do we make disproportionately higher efforts to earn this "extra" money in our lives as compared with the comforts that we get out of that, but also slowly, unconsciously, we increase the "zone of intolerance" of the entire family. 

The saddest outcome of this increase in the "zone of intolerance" is that it deprives us of many explorations. I have experienced many people not going to Vipassana retreat due to the thoughts about the perceived pain of not getting food in the evening, not having their mobile in their hand and not being able to talk for 10 days. They deprive themselves of such a beautiful exploration for these fears which grow as a result of all these things deprivations falling in their zone of intolerance. I have seen many students unable to sustain the civil services preparation because that demands cutting off from socialization and partying, studying hard for long hours, etc. Strangely, I see many of the civil servants getting so used to comfort that the slightest of challenges in the assignment make them nervous. 

A wide "zone of intolerance" not only limits our options for exploration quite limited but also makes us quite vulnerable. We do not know as to what situations are going to be faced by us as well as our kids. Most of the time the situations come as a surprise. Obsession with comfort drastically reduces our capacity to face the situations and makes us fearful and then we start running after the Babas and Astrologers quite keen to hand over all we have earned in our life to get the same peace back that we left to earn this money.

I am not at all saying that we should always be uncomfortable. I am just trying to say that anything over and above the optimum comfort is not only quite costly in terms of time and energy that is required to earn that extra comfort, but also quite short-lasting since the body naturally adapts to that higher dose of comfort and that extra comfort no longer remains extra. Also with this, the zone of intolerance for pain also increases in size which not only limits our opportunities to explore this world but also makes us quite vulnerable in this uncertain world.