what you are

The most fundamental function of desire is to move from what is to what should be. This is the movement of measurement, the brains capacity to create diversity and differentiate within its environment. Seeing this clearly, how does it operate in our daily life? Looking at our career, we see how much money we make and wish it could be more. We create an image of success based of the image of another, or what we have been taught, and strive for it. There is a practical purpose in each of these facets, and this is not a condemnation of improving ones financial state. Conflict arises when we identify ourselves with one of these images, or place extraordinary value in the pursuit of an ideal to achieve a higher status level.

In an impermanent world, thought relentlessly pursues the permanent. Whether it is power, a belief, or a heightened idea of self. Without trying to change it, can we be aware of this process occurring in our mind? We see the consequences of thoughts separative and ego-centric approach in society- the vanity, pride, idealism, and constant struggle to become something more. The challenge for us Westerners, heavily dominated by the intellect, is to operate from non-judgmental awareness and compassion for both ourselves and another. To die to ones knowledge, conditioning, ideas of ourselves and another, to meet the present fully and lightly. Not as another goal to become “better” but as the naturally intelligent response to life. After all, what we are is not an idea, but a constantly evolving living process that requires nothing less than full attention to experience without illusion and struggle.

-S.L