The latest celebrity Buddhist, Mick Jagger, can't get it. Neither, it appears, can I. It seems that to be satisfied, I'd have to arrange my life and the world to conform totally to my liking—and then have them stay that way:

• I will cease being sick and immediately travel to the ocean to body surf;
• My two grown children and their families will move in next door—one family on each side will do;
• The daytime temperature outside will range from 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit—always;
• Politicians on both side of the aisle will come to share my views;
• I will never be cranky again.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Notice that my satisfaction (which can also be thought of as my contentment or happiness) appears to be contingent on life conforming to my liking and my desires all the time. But it's not going to happen. I knew it before Mick Jagger sang it in another song: "You can't always get what you want." As the Buddhist monk, Ajahn Brahm, said: "You'd be asking the world for something it can never give you."

There is only one way to find personal satisfaction and happiness: we have to let go of our desire for life to always be how we want it to be.