Thus the curse of imagination again. To assume that any physical state is permanent, when all empirical evidence indicates that this is not so, we can both agree is foolish. A hungry cat will either pester its' people, or go and hunt. A hungry human will do what is necessary to obtain food. Natural processes. But to seek for a state in which not just contentment, but actual happiness, is permnanent is equally foolish. Such a state cannot exist outside the imagination. Happiness, joy in particular, is a state of excitement and arousal physiologically similar to anger or fear. and just as unsustainable and dangerous if prolonged.

The Stoics and Taoists came closest to a practical approach to reality in their doctrines of acceptance of what is and whatever comes in the same spirit of tranquility. As Kipling put it:

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,

And treat those two impostors just the same."