…by impermanence and suffering, or Dukkha (insatiable thirst).
The Buddha nailed this one. I think that “Groundhog’s Day”, one of Harold Ramis’ films, is largely about Dukkha. In the movie, the Bill Murray character keeps living the same day over and over and over. This repetitive, seemingly endless cycle of misery reflects what most of us feel. It’s like we’re on a treadmill chasing after superficial things like food, water, and sex. Even after we slake our thirst/hunger/sexual desire, we’re not happy for long because the same needs come back to keep us on the treadmill. In the back of our mind, and occasionally in the forefront of our consciousness, we have to ask, “Is this all there is to Life?”
The answer is, “Yes, if you don’t understand the true nature of things, which is that everything is impermanent.” If you understand everything is transitory/impermanent, you realize you can’t possess anything. You can experience things like food, drink, sexual satisfaction, spiritual satisfaction, joy, wonder, hope, sadness, loss, craving, depression, fun, tragedy, etc., but none of these things are permanent and hence, cannot be owned.
Craving, another word for insatiable thirst, results when one believes they are incomplete as they are so the person seeks something — physical sustenance of some sort — from the external world to make them whole. Alcoholics and drug addicts are the most obvious examples but they’re only the tip of the iceberg. Overweight people crave food. Smokers crave nicotine. The wealthy want more and more money. Politicians seek greater power. Celebrities want more and more attention. The list goes on and on. We’re never happy or satisfied for long because we believe we’re incomplete, not whole as we are. So there’s a perpetual state of wanting that we seek to fulfill with stuff, material things and non-material things such as attention from others, power (official power such as high-level positions in business and government but also power over others as in sexual power).
My next post will cover the 2nd Noble Truth — The Origin of Dukkha (suffering) is attachment to desire.– but for now, simply reflect on the 1st Noble Truth and how it relates to living in the present moment. Or rather, NOT living in the present moment. If we truly live in the present moment, does that not lessen our craving to NOT be in the present moment by seeking something to make ourselves whole? Isn’t insatiable thirst a result of our non-acceptance of the joy of the present moment?
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