Flames of Desire
The bright glare of emotion, “the flames of desire”, as Buddha says, obscures our view. All we can see are the objects of our passion. As those flames die down and the glare subsides, we are gradually able to see what is truly ‘out there’. Peering through the darkness what do we see ‘out there’? Strain as we might, all we see is our ‘in here’. Chapter 10 hints at where one’s discernment ends up, When your discernment penetrates the four quarters, Are you capable of not knowing anything?
Thank you!
In the end, nothing … is said.
Unspoken words are the most powerful to use: they can be used to express your infinite joy and, behold, you are joyful!
Then you hit the mark.
My word. I doubt we’ll get anywhere with this, but heck, its not the destination but the journey that is fun. Besides, as a famous author (or was it philosopher, I forget) once said, “To know what I’m thinking, I need to write it down”. That’s true in a way. I’ll stumble along observing and stuff just pops into my mind. Writing it down helps me flesh out and ‘understanding’ of what I ‘know’ (i.e., that initial vague intuitive observation). This help my discernment penetrate the four quarters, (helping me be more) capable of not knowing anything. That sound screwy, but in fact, the more I see the easier it becomes to ‘not know anything’.
I don’t trust all that much in what I think because thought just tends to reflect what I desire. It’s tricky to think that one knows. So, in searching for a meaning for the word ‘joy’ I look to my experience, both internally (memory) and to my observations (current). This process brought me to suspect that desire (or a feeling of need and pleasure for a duck) was intimately connected with joy.
The certainty inherent in “knowing whatever you feel” seems as universal as it is subjective. It is what allows one to think that one knows in the self-centric illusion that the decision has been derived at ‘independently’.
Are you implying that I have the free will to choose to feel what ever way I desire?
Differences are in the eye of the beholder, as are similarities. Saying “There is no difference between desire and joy” or “Neither is there a difference between desire and sadness” doesn’t elucidates much. Not that it should, but then what is the point is saying it? Alas, that is a question I often ask myself, and yet I rattle on.
However, it is profoundly revealing when, as Buddha said, one sees that: The surrounding world affects sensation and begets a craving thirst that clamors for immediate satisfaction. The illusion of self originates and manifests itself in a cleaving to things. The desire to live for the enjoyment of self entangles us in a net of sorrows. Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain.
As far as seeing differences or similarities, I’d only say that the former tends to be more stressful while the latter is more soothing… as least for me.
Just what is “joy” anyway? Do my ducks feel it? It appears so when they come across a juicy snail. Their ‘ship cometh in’. I notice the same responses in humans when their ‘ship cometh in’. Each person’s ‘ship’ is a function of what is most important to them in life, what they value most, what they desire most, what brings them the most pleasure.
For ducks that’s a few snails, for humans it may be winning the lottery, falling in love, opening a Christmas present, dying a martyrs death. The only thing these have in common is that they all represent for an individual something important or pleasurable and thus desired by that individual.
Speaking of desire and pleasure: It is no wonder then that Buddha said in his Truth #2, Pleasures are the bait and the result is pain, and that the Tao Te Ching says, Therefore the sage desires not to desire.
The ‘positive’ way we always rate joy, and the ‘negative’ way we often rate desire and pleasure demonstrates the inconsistency (hypocrisy) we unknowingly fall into when we think that we know. As an Native American might once have said, “Pale face not only speak with fork tongue, also think with forked mind.”
Thank you!
In the end, nothing … is said.
Unspoken words are the most powerful to use: they can be used to express your infinite joy and, behold, you are joyful!
Then you hit the mark.
Congratulations on the brevity! It’s much easier to get my mind around. Personally, when I touch ‘nothing’, even that word misses the mark, as do all other words (e.g., mastery, love, admire, fire, vital, source, void… ).
How ironic the inability of language to communicate true meaning. Of course, if it could we’d no long have any thing to say. Thus in my view, it is the conversation (the process) that is key, not the content.
“In the end, what else can one do but hold fast to the void?”
In the end, nothing else can one do but hold fast to the void.
What? Nothing? Variations of ‘nothing’ are possible, when variations of ‘hold fast’ are considered! Love it, admire it, find in it the mastery of all. Consider the void within as the vital source that sustains all that is colored by fire without.