I. FIRST MODE: IGNORANCE; THE STATES OF BEING
We
crave particular states or conditions of being (examples: comfort,
satiation, thrills, tranquility, a sense of security, personal or vocational
fulfillment, beauty, love, sexual arousal and pleasure, etc.).
States
or conditions of being are fluid, imperfect, alterable, finite, and ultimately
less than satisfying. No perfect and unalterable state of being exists.
Therefore this craving sets up an inevitable desire/pain cycle. (Pain is
inclusive here of anything that is unsatisfying, distasteful, emotive of
aversion, etc.).
Though
some pain is inevitable and necessary, too much pain can be unhealthy. It can
lead to the excessive use of alcohol, prescription drugs, narcotics, overeating,
overindulgence, and interpersonal conflicts. What is needed is a way to lessen
these detrimental occasions of pain.
The Three
Conundrums
1.
For humans, craving has outpaced reason. Because of the possibilities
afforded by our superior intellects and capabilities, we have the situation in
which we have endangered ourselves, and our very survival as individuals and as
a species, through unchecked craving.
2.
Craving is autonomic. We are unwittingly set up by our own natures for
the inevitable desire/pain cycle. Craving is the automatic and constant drone in
the background (and oftentimes the foreground) of our lives. Whether we wish to
or not, we will desire.
3.The
quest for enlightenment itself can be a craving.
Seeking
an enlightenment that we hope will culminate in the lessening or cessation of
all craving, (or even for a particular state or condition of being), appears on the surface to
be a possibility (please see Desire on page 3). However, even what is presumed to be enlightenment
can
become a craved state of being. We anticipate a pay-off for our
enlightenment, which becomes just another vanishing state. This enlightenment is actually anti-enlightenment.
"The very desire to be
free or to be enlightened will be the desire that prevents your freedom...The
energy from this desire will be a cause for doubt and restlessness...
Do not cling even to the practice of enlightenment." Ajahn Chah. (Here, I am not
referring to true enlightenment (please see thought
for June 22nd), which I propose can be acquired with the simple
insights available here, but a partial enlightenment, (masquerading as
full enlightenment), that we, in
ignorance, suppose to exist; a flash that instantly revolutionizes
our perspective once and for all, and never requires reinforcement (periodic
reminders and reflections on the true nature of things).
What
we can do: The good news is the
cycle of desire/pain does not have to be a constant and uninterrupted continuum.
It seems a continuum until it is understood; following knowledge, it can begin
to subside. When we learn, on a deep level, the futility of this
craving for perfect and unalterable states of being, we approach
liberation. (Just
consider the untold years that many have spent in a vain "pursuit of
happiness").
People
are craving a state of being without concurrently and willfully practicing a WAY
of being. A state, by definition, is static. But this stasis is a mental
construct; a phantom of our imaginations. Life
is dynamic; a flux. The true enlightenment excludes any notion of a means
towards some fixed, unalterable state of being. We should not focus
primarily on fulfillment of desirable states of being (the longevity of which is
nil). Rather, we should direct our attention on a way of being.
By
focusing on a way of being, we do not attack craving directly, but instead
undermine it. This practice weakens the source of cravings' energy. Rather
than wrestling with the monster of desire (desire is not a monster; it's
the detrimental effect unbridled desire has on our lives and well-being) we
learn to apply three simple principles or practices.
