Pain is the background of all your pleasures

Every pleasure, physical or mental, needs an instrument. Both the physical and mental instruments are materials, they get tired and worn out. The pleasure they yield is necessarily limited in intensity and duration. Pain is the background of all your pleasures. You want them because you suffer. On the other hand, the very search for pleasure is the cause of pain. It is a vicious circle.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj