Bliss instead of pleasure

One thing is now clear in my mind: that the ´normal´ life of chasing after pleasure and trying to avoid pain simply isn´t satisfactory for me anymore.

What I want now is bliss, not pleasure. Because pleasure (no matter how sweet to begin with) by its nature invariably turns into pain in the end, which fact I have found out by undergoing immense mental suffering in my life.

Bliss is superior to pleasure not just in being far more intense and stable and longer-lasting, but also in being uncaused: i.e. not dependent upon any external factors being present or not - in sharp contrast with pleasure, which is always contingent upon some external things being either present or absent.

Pleasure is like a raging out-of-control fire which always needs to consume more and more to keep itself alive, while bliss is akin to an incandescent flame which burns serene and unruffled no matter whether things go ´well´ or ´badly´.

Therefore, the wise foresake pleasure and aim for bliss.

And how can bliss be procured? Obviously not by any outward act, but only by inwardly drawing closer and closer to that mysterious essence of all things which we call ´God´.

Ps. The reader must not get the impression that pleasure is a bad thing in itself: instead, I must emphasize the fact that the difference between pleasure and bliss is, when all is said and done, one of degree and not of kind. Pleasure is a kind of masked and diluted bliss, and the thirst for pleasure (which is shared by nearly all creatures in the cosmos, the sole exceptions being those few who have attained to the condition of bliss) is really a thirst for bliss in disguise.