Santosha teaches us to subvert the hype of our consumerist culture

If the modern marketplace is a jungle, AI driven ad content is the alpha predator. WIth hyper personalized ad content created to undermine contentment and create need, the newest iteration of the advertising/commerce machine has the potential to fundamentally alter the evolution of human identity and define personhood. 

In the Western world, the average person is exposed to between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements daily. These ads are experienced as a constant, passive background to daily life rather than as dedicated or deliberate viewing. Because of this extreme saturation, consumption of ad content is largely subconscious and occurs through various and ever present channels. 

How Exactly Does AI Cater Content Specifically To You?

Every website you visit, every link you click, and how long you linger on content tells a very specific story about who you are and what interests you. Even your google searches provide strong and heavily scrutinized indicators of intent. Purchases made online are recorded, those items that are allowed to sit idle in your shopping cart reveal information about your interests, habits and needs. 

Social Media platforms are hugely profitable because they provide an environment that transforms your attention into a product to be sold. Even apps downloaded onto your phone can provide valuable location information and reveal data about physical places that you frequent and what your purchasing patterns are. 

Every individual email inbox is part of a powerful feedback loop that exchanges information about whether an email is opened, what links were clicked, what time the message was opened and whether that email resulted in a purchase. 

Finally, those loyalty programs and individual customer accounts are a tremendous resource for retailers. Those grocery store loyalty cards, airline rewards, hotel memberships and other online customer accounts are used to create highly individualized customer profiles that facilitate hyper specific, targeted advertising. 

This is ad personalization on an extremely specific scale and it is a highly effective strategy that exploits individual interests and vulnerabilities. There is no question that these advertising tactics rely on deliberately fostering dissatisfaction. It is a predatory system of manufactured need that is generated to drive sales and spending. 

Our modern culture is defined by constant exposure to advertising in the form of this literal “need machine”. 

Of course desire is not a new phenomenon. Human beings have always been tempted by their appetites. What has changed is the sophistication of the systems that cultivate and exploit those appetites for material gain. 

The question for individuals seeking peace of mind becomes: How do we nurture contentment in a world where cravings are engineered for profit?

The answer may be found in the writings of a Sage that lived in ancient India more than 2000 years ago. 

Scholars studying ancient India have surmised that the Sage Patanjali was one of several revered Indian philosophers. Patanjali is often credited with compiling the scattered oral traditions of yogic philosophy into the written Yoga Sutras between 200 BCE and 200 CE. This ancient text includes 196 foundational edicts or “sutras”. This text is what has allowed Patanjali to be credited with being the father of classical yoga tradition.

In his seminal writing, the sage Patanjali described the Eight Limbs of Yoga. More specifically, he described five critical internal practices that cultivate a balanced internal environment and spiritual growth. These practices are called the Niyamas and they comprise the entire second limb of a yogic lifestyle. The practice of Santosha is generally described as the second of the Niyamas. 

Literally translated, Santosha is defined as a state of contentment. It is described as the practice of complete acceptance of circumstances and the elimination of cravings. Rather than complacency, it is an active cultivation of attention to the current moment and deliberate discernment between want and need. Patanjali notes that the practice of contentment leads to a tranquil mind, unwavering focus, and a deep readiness for spiritual awakening.

Specifically, Sutra 2.42 states that ..”the direct result of true contentment is the attainment of unparalleled or supreme happiness.”

Ultimately, Santosha contends that lasting peace doesn't come from external achievements or accumulating possessions. Instead contentment arises from an internally driven acceptance of the current circumstances of life without attachment, aversion or judgment.  

Santosha asks us to live within every moment as though our entire life was a night sky, and each unfolding moment was a star. It asks us to train our attention to the flickering and unique light in every moment and to fill our hearts and minds with gratitude for the circumstances of our existence. 

However the primary goal of modern advertising tactics is to make our happiness heavily conditional. An unfathomable amount of energy is spent convincing people that contentment and happiness are dependent on something external and say to the self:

If I own this item I will be happy. 

If I travel to this destination I will be happy.

If I have this many social media followers I will be content.

If I had this thing then people would love me. 

All of these conditions are, of course, externally focused metrics of happiness. But the teachings of yoga ask us to train in the practice of contentment and to turn our focus away from that which is external to us. 

It is helpful to explain the practice with several essential exercises for the cultivation of contentment. 

Santosha or contentment begins with Monitoring One’s Thoughts. Pay close attention to circumstances, times of day and interactions that are associated with a sense of craving or material need. An individual seeking contentment must become aware of their patterns of thought without immediately believing, judging, or obeying every thought that arises.

The second exercise for cultivating contentment is learning to discern the Difference Between Want and Need. Things that are needed are common to all human beings. This includes water, sustenance, shelter and companionship. Wants, however, can be viewed as individual cravings. Want and unfulfilled desire is a sputtering engine driving consumer culture. A person may need transportation to a hospital, but a chauffeur driven car is a want. 

The pursuit of contentment also asks us to attempt to Control Only Those Things Which Can Be Controlled. This includes how much attention we give to our external circumstances. Attention is one of the few resources every human being possesses in equal measure. We all awaken each morning with roughly the same number of conscious hours. Where we direct those hours quietly determines the architecture of our lives. We can acknowledge that it is raining outside, but if we are to continue staring out the window, glaring at the overcast sky, that interferes with contentment.

Our personal attitude toward the problems which inevitably arise in life is another phenomenon that is within our control. If it is our mindset to be present and fully grounded in the Divine and purposeful origins of our being, then we are wholly legitimized and validated. No item that we could purchase or achievement that we could attain can validate our existence more profoundly than our Divine origin in the universe. This grounded perspective shields the individual from the barrage of manufactured need and discontent that is generated by the machine of advertising. 

And finally, Exercising Gratitude often and with intention is a powerful tool in the cultivation of contentment. The daily practice of offering gratitude for the gifted nature of life, grants the individual freedom from cravings that cloud thinking, perception and decision making. Practicing contentment as well as practicing gratitude, allows individuals to experience the joy of simple pleasures without clinging to them, without trying to control them, without trying to make them last forever. 

The practice of contentment doesn’t mean we stop taking care of our basic needs or stop working toward our goals. It simply means that we take care of ourselves and we put forth effort in the world from a content and whole state of mind.

In a consumption focused society, gratitude and contentment are revolutionary ideas. To be content is to subvert the forward progress of consumerism. Our economy functions because it feeds a feeling of emptiness. Contentment opposes that emptiness. 

Santosha in the Age of the Algorithm

The Sage Patanjali is said to have compiled the Yoga Sutras some time during what was known as a golden age of Indian philosophy, astronomy, and mathematics. During his lifetime, commerce was conducted in a physical marketplace. People often had to walk a substantial distance to reach a small city that could support a communal market. This market was entered intentionally, business was conducted face to face and the consumer was able to walk away once their transaction was complete. 

Today's marketplace often enters our homes before we've even thrown our covers off and gotten out of bed. This marketplace quietly observes what we search for, what captures our attention and what we eventually purchase. Artificial intelligence assembles these fragments into a portrait and predicts, with increasing efficiency, what we are most likely to desire next. It then begins composing a version of the world uniquely designed to keep that desire alive. 

Santosha asks us to do something profoundly countercultural: to notice the desire before obeying it.

The yogic principle of Santosha is the quiet willingness to accept the present moment without compulsively wishing it were different. It is not complacency, nor is it resignation. Santosha does not ask us to abandon ambition or ignore injustice. Rather, it invites us to recognize that peace cannot be achieved from that which is external. Contentment is a practice that does not depend entirely upon acquiring one more possession, one more achievement, or one more version of ourselves.

Artificial intelligence will continue becoming more sophisticated and advertising will become more personalized. The end result is that the marketplace will become increasingly capable of identifying the unique vulnerabilities of each individual. 

This positions the concept of Santosha as a practical form of psychological resilience. It makes that practice of deliberately training our attention an act of revolution against a machinery of unrelenting manufactured desire. 

It is worth repeating that Santosha asks us to live within every moment as though our entire life was a night sky, and each unfolding moment was a star. It asks us to train our attention to the flickering and unique light in every moment and to fill our hearts and minds with gratitude for the circumstances of our existence. It asks us to take a moment, to experience acceptance and allow the joy of a fruitful life to take hold.