Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Mind Chasing Desires
JaySon
Florida Veteran
in Mindfulness
I just realized I let my mind chase one desire after the next like a Chihuahua on crack.
Time to start letting desires go.
1
Comments
Ha! Good luck with that........not an easy task.
What's your plan?
Be patient but persistent. It's takes time and there'll be a lot of falling off the bike and climbing back on. Learn to forgive yourself when you falter. You don't need to be the perfect practitioner right away.
You might find meditating on Emptiness and Dependent Arising helpful? It helps me let go of some of the crap that I cling onto.
Alan Watts on desire
"Don't desire to give up more desire than you can and if you find that a problem, don't desire to be successful in giving up more desire than you can !"
...and for this reason Buddhism is seen as the "Middle Way"
And if it's a fairly harmless desire, what's the problem! Don't beat yourself up about it.
Would that be your desire?
You might need an intermediary goal that makes use of your monkey mind/Chihuahua on crack.
In a sense this is The Middle Way, the reframing or redirecting of our motivations and behavour.
Realising the nature of our being as fundamentally a hamster in a karmic wheel, explains the need for ... well we all know the answer to that one ...
https://kadampaworkingdad.com/2013/01/22/ultimate-perfection-of-the-path-part-8-striving-for-liberation-from-samsara/
See my problem is the opposite. I don't let my mind chase desires, but under non-concentrated meditation it becomes extremely impulsive. I find it wandering off in all sorts of directions, fantasies, imagined places I've never been... by the time I come back to the breath I've lost any depth the meditation had.
So I think I need to work on my concentration.
Yeah, I know what you mean. Some days it's easier to get my mind concentrated than others. Stinkin five hindrances...
I suppose I can live with chasing wholesome, virtuous desires.
That's interesting. I'm looking at that article and video. I never think about dependent arising like that. But I'm going to start.
I always think about emptiness as interbeing. Emptiness means empty of what? Empty of an independent self.
"Fullness" would be a less confusing term. Full of what? Full of everything. I am made up of sunlight, oxygen, water, food I eat, amino acids that probably first came to earth stuck to a meteorite. I am made up of non-person elements. And yet I am a person.
Middle Way. Increase wholesome. Other stuff will come for the ride.
Do you have any particular article to read about this topic that may be easier to understand. I've read about 4 articles on this topic. When I read about this topic it's like a rollercoater for me of "oh, okay" and then "say what". I kinda of get it and I kind of don't.
Preaching to the choir @JaySon
That will be by next focus.
I think sometimes when we focus too much on our "desires" we start to get confused on which are ego-driven pleasure desires, and which are needs. Human beings have needs and it's been shown in many studies that to go without fulfilling them (which of course differs by person as to which needs and to what degree they are needed) can cause psychological trauma. It's good to investigate where our desires are coming from. But important to maintain a healthy balance so one isn't pushing towards not having connections with people, not eating healthy etc all out of a misconstrued idea of pushing desire away. Remember, aversion is the flip side of the coin to attachment. Neither are any good.
Good point @karasti
All my attempts at perfect virtue have ended in misery.
when we grab (like) one, we reject (dislike) all other, in one thought moment
this is happening to us all the time, unless we are mindful with wisdom
That is in the lost suttas of the Spiny Nikaya, they subsequently replaced the dog with a monkey.
Yes, the trick is realising that we don't have to follow through on all these craving and aversions, and they usually don't last that long.
Hi @Tigger
I actually find meditating on Dependent Arising more beneficial when I am contemplating Emptiness than meditating directly on Emptiness. But that's just me. Others may be different.
I have found the best "thing" to meditate on when contemplating Dependent Arising is the body.
When contemplating Emptiness I found the best book was HHDL's Seeing Yourself as You Really Are. I had to read it twice in order to get it but it was worthwhile.
Re: Dependent Arising, I have stolen the text below from Venerable Chodron - I am sure she won't mind
First we'll meditate on the dependent arising nature of all phenomena.
There's three different ways functioning things arise dependently.
The first is that they're dependent on causes and conditions.
So think of your body for example. And all the causes and conditions that went in to creating it. Really think deeply about this. Think of all the different things that had to come together for your body to exist. So really trace it back. Not only the sperm and the egg and the food that we've eaten but all the causes and conditions that came even before that created the sperm and the egg and the food. Amd as you're doing this and dissecting all the causes and conditions, try and get a feeling of how your body exists ONLY because all those causes and conditions exist. And if any single one of them were missing your body would not be what it is or it might not even exist at all!
(Contemplate)
When you're contemplating this don't just think about it intellectually, but really get a feel of this body. My body. it only exists because all these causes and conditions exist. It DOESN'T exist independently on its own.
(Contemplate)
The second way things are dependant is that they're dependent on their parts. So again examine your body and mentally dissect it and see how many parts there are. There's a head and legs and arms and stomach, intestines, liver. And each of those parts is made of smaller parts. A hand has fingers and a palm. And one of those parts, like a finger, also has parts. So we come to understand that everything that functions in this way depends on parts. And as you're contemplating this, using your body as an example, also reflect on how none of the parts is the thing. In other words our body is composed of various parts but the leg is not a body, the intestines are not a body, the head is not a body. So the body is composed of parts, all of which are non body. So again as you're reflecting on this get a sense of how the body exists dependant on its parts. It doesn't exist independently or under its own power.
(Contemplate)
And the third way that things exist dependently is that they exist by being merely labeled by term and concept in dependence on a valid base. For example, there's the accumulation of parts. The arms, the legs, the internal organs and so forth that forms a valid base and then our minds put the pieces together conceptually and comes up with the label body to describe that. So reflect here, using your body as an example, how things exist by being labeled by mind and concept. How things exist by being merely labeled by term and concept in dependence on a valid base.
(Contemplate)
It might be helpful to think of just the collection of parts and then watch how your mind forms a concept and gives it the label body. And how at that moment when you do THEN body appears to you. But before the term and concept were labeled on that base, body DIDN'T appear to you.
(Contemplate)
It's also helpful to reflect upon this in terms of the "self". Or the "I". It only exists because there were causes and conditions i.e. previous moments of the self, previous moments of the body and mind. And the I exists in dependence on the parts i.e. the body and all the different aspects of consciousness or mind. And then in dependence on the accumulation of all these parts, on the collection of all these parts, the body and the mind, we develop the concept "I". And label "I". And it's in that way that the self exists. By being merely labeled in dependence on the mental and physical aggregates. The body and the mind.
(Contemplate)
So when we meditate on Dependent Arising things seem a little bit less solid. We really get a sense of their dependent nature. And that's very helpful to hold in mind.
Good luck!
I was reading somewhere about the nature of desire.
When desire is fulfilled, you aren't actually fulfilled. You feel like that's the case, but the truth is that your desire went away, and that's what feels great.
I heard a saying once of an unknown origin that made sense. "As you get older, reasoning should increase, and acting out emotions decrease".
Thanks @Bunks, I will contemplate on this