So often I find myself wound up like a spring over one thing or another. Usually it is when there is something I want and can't get or something that is out of my control.
Example, the other day I bought a beautiful tea cup to match my tea pot, at a garage sale. I was so happy when I got it home because it really did match. Until I thought, what if I could find another one that matches so I could have a little set. So, instead of letting it go, making a cup of tea and enjoying my find, I began searching the Internet for a matching tea cup. I wasted a good part of the day looking at fine bone china online. To make it worse, I wasted a beautiful sunny day, I was distracted from my children and my husband because of an overwhelming desire to find what I was looking for. Does this sound familiar?
Although the Internet is an amazing resource it can also be the perfect excuse to let your frivolous desires rule your day.
Buddhists call this the "hungry ghost" a beast of unquenchable desire, no matter how much you feed it, it will never be satiated.
This hungry ghost phenomena is one of our biggest problems. Let me show you how. If we are constantly looking out for something new we want to posses, then we are not looking inwards. We are not spending time exploring our mind, opening our heart, listening to God, whatever you want to label it. We are often so focussed on what we want, what we think we need, that we do not see the real need all around us. We do not see the suffering that surrounds us, the hungry, the homeless, the lonely, the broken and oppressed. We also do not see our own suffering. Yes, wanting things is a great distraction, but eventually you will find yourself alone, unable to escape from yourself.
The only remedy for this condition of human selfishness is to stop feeding the beast. At first it will be hard, almost painful to not give in to your desire to buy more, possess more. But the longer we sit with ourselves, listening, breathing, opening the more we will want to give. Once that desire to help others takes root it will grow like a weed and will bring you more joy than a new "thing" ever could.
The Buddha said, "Let us live most happily, possessing nothing; let us feed on joy, like the radiant gods." Dhammapada 15.4. Our happiness will never be contingent on what we possess.
~Namaste
