Great article. Short and sweet. My take on it is like this:

All that bouncing to and fro, that's all about looking for that reward and feeling that punishing shame. That's pretty much what Western materialism is about (this isn't to say that Eastern cultures are doing much better), and we've been trained for the dope, like Pavlov's Dogs.

It starts with parents telling us what to do and how to do it, and when we fail, natural consequences just aren't enough for the parents. So they have to pile it on with punishments ranging from spankings, beatings, isolation, shaming and God knows what else.

Then when we're good, we get the ice cream, the allowance, Daddy's car for the weekend, or the graduation gift. We go for the gold, the sex, the high, or the food.

Wherever we go, for better or worse, none of it really teaches us to be happy with what we have right now. Punishment and reward just doesn't teach us any skills, and certainly not any skills about how to be happy in the here and now.

I've done my share of bouncing from bad to good and back again. I've seen the abyss. I've seen the snowy mountains. Now I've found some place in the middle where I can mostly relax. I don't worry so much about the reward or the punishment. I just deal with what is before me and see what happens next.