If you’re waiting for certain conditions to appear before you permit yourself to be happy, remind yourself that you don’t have to organize your life that way. Because desire is limitless, that strategy might force you to wait forever. The moment one wish is realized, a new one appears to take its place. Getting what you thought you wanted isn’t what makes you happy. That can only be done by deciding to be happy. In every moment there are things that are ‘missing’ and things that bring delight. How you feel depends on where…
Your attention is.
Jarl and Steve
Desire seems to me a very tricky notion. We do need to be grateful and to focus on what we want, but we mustn’t let desire for what we want convert into craving, dissatisfaction, clinging to outcomes. The only way I see to break away from the addictive character of desire is to begin and end it with gratitude. I even suppose the best cure for ADD is conscious breathing. Just to DO that, we have to step outside ADD feelings.
Some of us habitually leap over the “simple” stuff and immediately find ourselves stuck in the “complicated” stuff on the other side. Some say desire is poisonous; some say desire is what drives us into being.
Well said Larry! Desire is what drives us into being.
So very plain and yet so provocatively close to the core. I think my ability to read these things is improving greatly.
It is less clear how to share it with others — it is such a trap that we so doggedly believe what we choose and imprison ourselves in that capsule.