Life is change. All
life as we know it changes. Your life has been filled with
change. Each moment there are processes going on in your mind
and body. Change is a beautiful thing. It’s our fear of
the unknown that causes us to resist change. We love change
when we feel safe with that change. No one that I know likes
the same food over and over. No one that I know likes
incessant boredom. No one that I know doesn’t like to
experience new things so long as they feel safe doing so.
Variety is the result of differences. Differences are the
result of a changing universe. Without change, life
stagnates. Without change, you would remain as you are
forever. I believe that we all want change. What we
don’t want is the sense of loss that change sometimes
brings.
All life has a sense of
desire. Whether it be love, nourishment, or pure
fulfillment. Desire requires change. To become
desireless is to remove the seeking of specific change. I
feel that the Buddha was not suggesting that life should be without
desire. He was suggesting a way to lessen life’s
sadness which he saw as being the result of desire, specific
desire. If the Buddha saw no pain or suffering, he
wouldn’t have felt it necessary to develop his
philosophy. If pain were seen as a tool to be used to help
improve our lives, we would use it wisely and not seek to avoid it
at all costs. Our existence is dependent upon change. Change
is a beautiful thing. We get to learn how to change
well.
So given that life is in a
constant state of change which naturally results in desires, are we
destined to be saddled with unfulfilled desire? How we each
answer that question will determine how we will feel about
life. If we feel that our desire will ultimately be filled,
then we live a life of grace. If we feel that our desires
will go unfilled, then life will seem to be cruel. This
isn’t a matter of discovering what is ultimately true.
We get to choose what we will believe is true and that will define
and create our experience, regardless of how accurate we are.
