Michael Foley

The covers are brightly coloured, the titles are long and greedy, the tone is frenziedly cheerful and the argument has three basic assumptions: that fulfilment is a consequence of worldly success (God Wants You To Be Rich); that there are a number of simple steps for achieving fulfilment (Life Is Short – Wear Your Party Pants: 10 Simple Truths That Lead To An Amazing Life); and that anyone who follows the prescribed steps will discover vast, untapped potential (Awaken the Giant Within).

After a certain point, having more has no effect.

As Schopenhauer remarked: ‘With possession, or the certain expectation of it, our demands immediately increase and this increases our capacity for further possessions and greater expectation . . . to attain something desired is to discover how vain it is.’

our natural temperament is always reasserting itself; people can get used to almost anything

But staying cool is hard work because the cool is constantly destroyed by mass adoption.

Schopenhauer put it with typical clarity: ‘We take no pleasure in existence except when we are striving after something.’

Religions are the most ferocious intellectual imperialists. A religion is by definition a Grand Unified Theory of Everything, providing, for those prepared to offer absolute brand loyalty, a one-stop shop for all intellectual and spiritual requirements (Buddhism is an honourable exception). And what a luxury to have every problem explained and provided with a ready-made solution.

The striving is not only difficult but its goal is obscure – a theme repeated endlessly since the axial age, around the middle of the first millennium BCE, when the human ape accident

This expresses a profound truth – that the search for meaning is itself the meaning, the Way is the destination, the quest is the grail.

They could analyse the pros and cons of each possibility but, without feeling, they were unable to choose one over the others. So intuition or ‘gut feeling’ is not merely a part of the process but an essential feature of it.