From our first day we look around trying to find out what is going on. We cannot tell. It is all unfamiliar. But we learn. Our senses come in contact with things. Some are pleasant. We like that. We are drawn to them. Some are painful. We try to get away from them. We ignore things from which we get no feeling. That is how we figure out what to do. If we are not careful that is how we will orient and navigate through life.
It makes sense. But it doesn’t work. It does not make us happy. It cannot. That is why we may feel that our current circumstances are unsatisfactory, and why we face grief, sadness, frustration and death.
It doesn’t work because craving the pleasant feelings we want from things we do not have makes us unhappy. And getting what we want does not satisfy our craving for long. Pretty soon we crave something new. And when we do get the thing or the person or the dinner or the trip or the job or the deal or the car or the house or the drug or the experience we wanted, we cling to it, worry about losing it, try to protect it, and watch as it changes, as it fades, as it begins to dissolve in our hands, before our eyes. We cannot hold onto it forever.
We know that, but we go on craving things and clinging to things. Missing the old ones. Wanting new ones. Striving harder and harder to get them, hold them, keep them from deteriorating. Like water in a kettle on the stove, becoming more turbulent as the fire blazes, until the water boils away, until we, our lives, are exhausted.
If that was the end of the story it would just be grim. But it is not.
The craving and clinging for pleasant feelings come from a misunderstanding of the objects which we experience. And the misunderstanding of our own heart and mind. Once we do understand them then the agitation, dissatisfaction and pain cease. There is no place for them. It is not that we cease to care about things or people or ourselves or life or the course of events, large and small. It is that we understand them.
We assume that the qualities of the object are in the object, and if we get the object we will get the pleasant qualities. Money, sex, food, idleness, notoriety, victory and status seem to promise pleasant experience, happiness, security and satisfaction. People seek these out.
Hunting for gratification, they only find more craving. They are driven on, seeking intensification and variation of the pleasurable experience. They are persuaded that this excitement in pursuit is what will make them happy, keeps them moving forward, keeps them alive. But it does not. Instead, they find themselves caught in a vortex, a revolving sequence of desire, obstacles, gratification and renewed desire. A cycle that is vacant, urgent, painful and endless. It does not keep them going. It traps them. Promiscuity, greed, and megalomania, no matter the magnitude or degree of refinement, are addictions which do not make people happy; they make people miserable. The pursuit of pleasurable sensations does not keep people alive. It kills them.
In the name of freedom, by purveying the illusion of freedom, through the enchantment of a misunderstanding of the nature of objects of desire, people find slavery. This misunderstanding and its consequences are known as delusion or ignorance. It is the way of the world.
Its opposite is understanding things as they really are. That is called insight, liberation or wisdom.
That is the objective of our approach to mind training.
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Post Copyright © 2024 Jeffrey Brooks
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read True Karate Dō by Jeffrey Brooks
“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling. Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners. A splendid achievement.”
— Philip Zaleski, Editor, The Best Spiritual Writing series