In my free time, if I were not tired busy or distracted, what would I enjoy doing? Lately I am thinking about this question often. I seem to be spending my free time reacting to my surroundings, as opposed to anxiously waiting for s few minutes to be able to do what I really want to do.
This question is very important to me. It touches on such questions as “Who am I?” “What do I love to do?” “What are my pleasures”? Especially in light of the Chasidic explanation that pleasure is the expression closest to the essence of the soul.
I will pick up a book of the previous Rebbe’s talks, and I will find pleasure by being absorbed and pulled into the worlds that the previous Rebbe describes.
I will try to find pleasure in that experience and transformation.
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In the previous paragraph I originally wrote “I will find entertainment”. I crossed out the word entertainment and replaced it with pleasure. I was uncomfortable with the word entertainment, pleasure felt better.
Is there a difference between entertainment and pleasure?
To the best of my knowledge Chasidus has a lot of discussion about pleasure, its importance, its sanctity, it is described as the expression of the souls essence, yet I have never seen any mention of anything resembling entertainment.
Perhaps I can suggest that pleasure is desirable, it is wholesome, it takes effort to attain, it is delicate and you must be careful not to distract it. Its hard earned and fragile. Entertainment is synonymies with effortless. You just plop down in your seat and expect to be entertained. Nothing good can result from the lazy desire for entertainment. The only enjoyment worth pursuing are the ones that take effort.
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