From Content to Contentment
Transcending the ego
Last post we discussed about content, field and context and how our ego constricts all of these three circles. This post we will discuss about how much content is sufficient to reach a level of contentment.
Content to contentment, have you ever thought about how much content is enough to reach a level of contentment. This content can be related to many things in life, such as health, wealth, career, relationships and pretty much everything and anything in our life.
How do we get to contentment?
What is contentment?
Understanding Contentment
The definition of contentment is a state of happiness and satisfaction.
This is the definition, but happiness and satisfaction have a different level of understanding and perception for everyone that has ever lived. Both happiness and satisfaction are a subjective topic, and everyone will have a different definition to what it means to them.
Happiness and satisfaction based on the individual can be defined as any of the below or none of the below:
Sitting on the beach, soaking in the beauty of the ocean.
Working in a fulfilling profession.
Watching sports, television, or indulging in hobbies.
Gardening, nurturing life, and growing food.
Sleeping all day without a worry.
Walking in nature, immersed in solitude.
Taking a shower after a long day's work.
Traveling to long-desired destinations.
Completing a day's work with a sense of fulfillment.
Spending time with loved ones…
This list can be as long or short as you want it to be, neither fixed nor universal. It is shaped by how we see ourselves and the world, influenced by our values, experiences, and beliefs. The experiences we value most—our list—is shaped by choice, perspective, and perception.
Content vs. Contentment: The Role of Consumption
The distinction between content and contentment lies in consumption.
In economic terms, we can continue consuming content while remaining attached to results—constantly chasing satisfaction. Contentment, however, involves engaging in the act of consumption without being consumed by the outcome will be, should be or has occurred.
True contentment is presence—acting without attachment to outcome. We are no longer bound by the expectations of results.
Ask yourself: What activities do you currently perform with a level of contentment, that you are not bound by the result?
Practicing Detachment
This is one of the hardest things to do in life, as most of our life is built on action and reaction. We have brought up to believe that to obtain an outcome, this action has to be completed. Our perception and belief system within our consciousness has developed with either perceiving results as good or bad, which in turn drives our actions.
True contentment emerges when we practice detachment while engaging in action—a state described in various philosophies as:
Flow (effortless immersion)
Ikigai (purpose-driven fulfillment)
Transcendence (rising above worldly attachments)
Fulfillment (internal rather than external success)
Enlightenment (awareness beyond ego)
All of these frameworks have been developed for us to learn about the truth and obtain maintain an elevated level of contentment consciousness whilst we continue live our life.
Some might find contentment in the simplicity of watching waves roll in, feeling no urge to capture the moment or prove its worth. Others might reach it in their profession, working not for accolades but because they genuinely love the craft.
Contentment is not about limiting your growth, it is remaining detached from the desire of growth. Instead, it is to remain in state of purpose that continuously drives us to strive for success and continue our work whilst being fulfilled.
Contentment is not something to acquire but to uncover. Contentment has always been there, waiting beneath the layers of our desires and expectations.
So how do we uncover from these layers in our search for contentment.
Uncovering Contentment Beneath the Layers of Ego
In the previous discussion, we examined content, field and context - our current level of truth. The outside line in the circle of context is the line of our own ego. The ego envelops our current contextualization. Due to the ego, we are unable to expand past our current, content, field and context.
When we transcend our own false ego, contentment sits outside all of these circles. It can be as easy as transcending our own ego or as hard as we want to make it.
The mind and body all live within these circles, as we try to contextualize all thoughts, situations, actions, reactions, beliefs etc. inside this circle of comfort. The ego is always seeking validation, either external or internal. This is then driven in the mind as thought desires and outputted as actions through our body. The ego never lets us reach a state of happiness and satisfaction. The ego continues to seek new content within our current field of context, but not outside the circle where true contentment exists. It keeps us under this zone of comfort, further feeding itself. To remove the ego, we have step outside the circle by learning about how it has developed.
The ego has developed through our unconscious and conscious mind. When we consciously peel back the layers of the unconscious mind, we can observe the truth, which leads to us learning about what true contentment means.
The ego survives because we let it survive, thrive and conquer the mind and body.
Survival, Significance, and the Ego’s Grip
The ego has developed due to urge of survival. We are all taught that to survive is to fight for our right and this is the method to achieve significance in the world. This urge, race to the top, to always win, result driven pursuits is where the ego lives.
This survival instinct is seen in all life forms. The food chain has been built on this system of survival of the fittest. The aim of every living organism in this world is to survive. For us humans’ survival generally is considered as obtaining a level comfort described as sufficient shelter and food to provide sustenance for ourselves and family.
Once a level of survival is reached, the next stage of evolution is to strive and reach for significance. The fish that has survived the swimming in the river, now wants to expand and become the whale to swim the ocean and conquer it.
The race to significance has no end to it, as we continue to desire more and more than what we actually require. The ego sees this as opportunity for it feed itself and contextualizes in the mind to continue to build on the significance. The pursuit of life becomes to be bigger, better, larger, the first to attain a specific goal or target, striving for recognition and power driven by the ego. There is brief moment of contentment when we reach the specific goal or target. This moment is quickly absorbed by the ego, as at this moment we are no longer feeding it. It again brings a desire, fire in the belly, to continue the pursuit of desires for the benefit of obtaining results.
Visualizing the process of evolution, can help us understand the main driver for all of creation has been the ego. The ever-expanding universe (inflation theory) is how the ego continues to grow performing personal desires. This inflation of anything and everything (evolution), is only the desire of the ego.
Self-actualization: A Path to Transcendence
To reach a sustained level of contentment, we have to self-actualize - to reveal what already exists within. Self-actualisation is a process where we start to question our own purpose. From this pursuit of self-actualization, we are able peel back the layers of the ego and understand the truth and reality.
Self-actualization is not about becoming—it is about unbecoming.
Performing activities under the mode of self-actualization, starts to develop a conscious action to focus on the purpose, which in turn provides a framework to continue to do action practicing detachment. The river does not force its flow, yet it reaches the ocean effortlessly—just as contentment is found in natural surrender rather than pursuit. We start to remain detached from action, driven by purpose only and form an understanding of true contentment.
Like a restless traveler, the ego roams, seeking more—never realizing it has always been home. To transcend the ego, is to first transcend the survival instinct, then to transcend the significance stage, and finally pursue a journey of self-actualization.
Contentment is thus transcending the ego.
Contentment is already here. I need not chase—I only need to see.
If you have found this article to be insightful, inspiring, impactful in raising the awareness of your own reality then please share it with the wider society.