What monkeys teach us about grasping after objects of Desire.
I want things.
We all want things.
Perhaps it’s a car, a job, a lover. We all have worldly concerns, and we all pursue or own selfish desires.
Even Buddhist practitioners advanced on the path develop a feeling called Bodhicitta, which is the desire to become personally enlightened for the sake of other people.
Releasing personal, Selfish Desire is the final step on the journey to Enlightenment, or so I’m told.
I haven’t released my Selfish Desire yet.
Desirous Attachment
Desirous Attachment forms when observing a worldly object, feeling it to be attractive, exaggerating its positive qualities, and developing strong feelings toward possession of that worldly object.
When you first came into existence as pure aware consciousness, there was just observation.
In the first moment of self-awareness, consciousness observes itself and realizes “I exist.”
Buddhists call this the primordial error.
In the next moment comes the feeling, “I am important.”
And with it, we give birth to Selfish Desire, our instinct to survive, and other primal forces needed for individual survival.
Selfish Desire is the second item in the consciousness boot-up sequence.
It’s deep.
Let me show you just how deep it is.
The Monkey Trap of Desire
Did you know that you can capture a monkey by exploiting a trap in their mind?
This is an amazing illustration of Grasping at objects of Desire.
Please, watch and learn. This young man gets it.
All the monkey has to do is release the object of Desire, and the monkey will regain its freedom.
Yet it doesn’t.
It can’t.
That second item on the boot-up sequence is so deeply ingrained that no amount of competing desires can overcome it.
Even the desire for personal freedom, at the risk of death!
Satiation is an Illusion
Satiating Desires is futile.
Another Desire arises in replacement.
Repeatedly.
Perpetually.
The Wheel of Saṃsāra. Spinning like a roulette wheel.
We are balls bouncing, banging, trapped forever inside.
True Satiation is a doorway.
Extinguish desire, the door opens, you exit Samsara and enter Nirvana, the Pure Land of Total Inner Peace.
The First Noble Truth of the Buddha
The First Noble Truth is about our relationship with desire.
Each encounter with objects of desire leaves behind feelings of weakness or a lack of fulfillment.
Life becomes defined by a low-grade sense of dissatisfaction like everything is “Meh.”
While pursuing Desire, you exist in a constant state of lack, unsatisfied and disappointed.
Lack Sucks.
Lack drains Qi.
It eats you up inside.
It’s Sisyphus from ancient Greece, endlessly pushing that emotional boulder up the hill, tasting brief satisfaction at the peak before tumbling down, repeating the cycle over and over again.
Consumer Society is a Monkey Trap
It’s our empty consumer society promising happiness and fulfillment with a new car, a new house, social status, and conspicuous consumption.
Most people don’t obtain their objects of desire to discover the truth of their emptiness.
Many who obtain everything they want refuse to acknowledge that emptiness because the regret over a wasted lifetime chasing rainbows is too much to bear.