The 'Hedonic Treadmill' is a phrase I came across while reading the excellent book Why Buddhism is True, by Robert Wright *. The phrase succinctly summarises what I expressed rather more clumsily in a previous post:
'Dukkha is sometimes translated as suffering, but in actual fact encompasses all senses of unsatisfactoriness, even including pleasure (which evolution has contrived will always be a transient sensation - lest it detract too much from the grim business of survival).'
As Wiki explains 'The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. According to this theory, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. Brickman and Campbell coined the term in their essay "Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society" (1971). During the late 1990s, the concept was modified by Michael Eysenck, a British psychologist, to become the current "hedonic treadmill theory" which compares the pursuit of happiness to a person on a treadmill, who has to keep walking just to stay in the same place.'
Or, as the Kadampas would say: 'Samsara’s pleasures are deceptive, Give no contentment, only torment.'
* In Why Buddhism is True, Robert Wright demonstrates how Buddha, living 2500 years ago, discovered mental processes, especially those causing delusions, which have only recently been confirmed scientifically by evolutionary psychologists.
See also
Evolution, Emptiness and Delusions of the Darwinian Brain
Dukkha, Dawkins, Darwinism and the Selfish Gene
Can you debiologize your mind? And if you do will anything remain?
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