Lester,

Its true that desire leads us into the next moment, but there are noble desires, such as those which lead to the betterment of all people, and self-centric desires, which lead to the accumulation of sensually pleasing objects with no regards as to cost.

Some people do not believe that desire for sense pleasure leads to suffering. That’s fine, and you’re correct that it leads to lessons. When we ignore the lessons, we are given other chances to learn. The thing is, the lesson from sense pleasure chasing is being unfulfilled, which is difficult to abandon because being unfulfilled pushes us to replace the lost sense pleasure with new ones. Ie, hungry ghost. Often, one has to cycle down until it is so painful that they abandon it out of pain. The lucky ones, with a mustard seed of faith, hear the truth and quickly see and abandon craving.

Also consider that perhaps some of the innovations, such as the lightbulb, do not represent “dreams of wealth and women” coming true. Rather, some people look at their skill, a need the world has, and attempts to apply their knowledge for the betterment of all. Edison invented many things, but we have no reason to assume he was happy. Or that he wasn’t.

What we do know is that many, many teachers who have looked deeply into the causes and conditions of happiness have stated in one way or another that material/sensual pleasure is not the path to joy. It brings about the pain which inspires the abandonment of that path for the path of joy… but the path itself is cyclical and unsatisfying.

With warmth,
Matt