Alana's Dharma Blog

I came across an Atlantic article today, the upshot of which was that the secret to satisfaction has nothing to do with achievement, money, or stuff –the secret to satisfaction is wanting less.

As I was reading, I stopped to look out the window at the sunlight so beautifully shimmering over the water in the bay below. I took a deep breath, enjoying the view and then realized that this thing — this view – that I enjoy so much has already caused me a world of suffering…

Eric and I had been spending a few months in Miami. We were staying at a bay front property, an Airbnb, in the same apartment building my dad used to live. I loved the building, especially the view. But it isn’t enough to just enjoy this view, this experience of living in Miami again, while I have it. No! I want to claim it, I want to guarantee more of it in the future. So, I have already started hunting for real estate in this building, I have already had a ton of drama and fights with Eric over it too. Now, realizing that having what I have just makes me want more, I see that even if I get an apartment I want, I will find a way, a thing, to want all over again.

The truth is, I don’t even need to want MORE necessarily, sometimes it’s just the desire to keep what I have. The problem is, trying to keep what I have is more work, more stress, more sorrow when inevitable loss comes. I already have this view right in front of me; what I have already is clearly a burden.

Long ago LP Nut talked about a hike with LP Anan where he was asked to carry along a chair. The hike was long, arduous. The chair made it a terrible struggle. At the end, LP Anan asked –why didn’t you just put down the chair? Why is it I can’t put down my burdens?

I’m so afraid of loss, but gain is also a problem. Having is a problem. They are both burdens — the burden of acquiring, the burden of keeping, and the burden of loss only arise as a result of the burden of having. If having hurts and not having hurts then where is Sukka?

Sometimes I feel stuck, don’t know how to proceed, but I sort of do– look at the sing story. What is the point? That I never really have anything to begin with. It is just an illusion that it is mine. I struggle and fight to acquire and maintain simple to feed my illusion. A body , belongings are means not ends. What I use to move through this world.

Eric and I were spending 3 months in Miami to pass the winter and be close to my family. I was delighted, having the time of my life; I wanted to stay longer, to settle down, Eric who was not quite as enamored, was unsure.  Still, because he loves me, Eric offered to buy me a place in Miami. He offered to commit to several months a year there. I, however, wanted more.

I was upset, snippy with Eric, his compromise wasn’t enough for me. He was giving part, I wanted all. He was begrudging, I wanted enthusiastic. It wasn’t enough that Eric was willing to do all this for me – I wanted him to want the same thing as me.

Eric pointed out how unreasonable I was being, how poorly I was treating him when he as so willing to meet me more than halfway. He was right of course, I apologized, felt contrite.

Later in the car I was still feeling guilty for my treatment of Eric and got to thinking about the whole issue more. Here, I had such an amazing husband, a partner really and willing to give and to compromise, but I was still dissatisfied. I wanted more. But even as I craved more, demanded more, behaved poorly doing so, I felt burdened by the debt I owe to Eric, for being such an attentive partner, for taking such good care of me, for giving me everything in his power to give me even when, reflecting on my behavior, I feel I don’t deserve it.

If I have, but I want more, this is dukkha.  If someone can have as much as I do, and still there is ALWAYS ROOM FOR MORE, there is always dukkha. And if having, getting, creates a weight of debt, a burden to pay back, this too is dukkha. Where does dukkha end if craving continues in such a peak life?

I had been reading and editing the second part of LP Thoon’s Autobiography and I ended up going back to the first part to look more closely at the Ubai that ultimately helped him become enlightened: It was about a Skunk Vine. He had cleared a path for walking meditation, but the very next day a new skunk vine had begun to grow where it had already been cleared before. He saw that the cause of the skunk weed growing is in the bulb itself. Once the cause for becoming exists it is only a matter of the right circumstances — water, soil, sun, etc — for it to begin growing. Unless it is fully uprooted ,and the bulb destroyed, it will keep growing back anytime the circumstances for growth align. For him, he saw that this is the same with rebirth/becoming. As long as the root cause exists –desire — rebirths will occur when the circumstances are fertile. Only uprooting and destroying desire, the cause for becoming, is going to lead to cessation.

I think until I had my own snowflake realization, I couldn’t quite register the import of this Ubai. Now though, I see it much more clearly: The cause of a snowflake is the nature of water itself. All it takes are for the right conditions to come — temp, humidity, wind, etc and you get snow. Over and over the same drop of water can cycle through freeze and thaw. The particular shape of the snowflake depends on the environmental conditions that give it shape, but the tendency to arise as a flake–ceaselessly — is in the water.

The other day I was doing some volunteer work at a food bank. I started considering why some folks were on the receiving side of the line and others on the giving side. Fresh off of re-reading the skunk vine story, I began thinking in terms of core causes:

Why was there a food drive at all? Because 4E humans need 4e food to survive. This is common to all humans. Frankly it is common to all 4es, they tend to degrade and disaggregate and need continual ‘re-feeding’ to sustain a shape for any duration.

Why are there embodied humans in need of food? Because each of us was born from the desire to be/become, from our craving for satisfaction, from our belief that said satisfaction is to be found in the rupa world.

Already it was clear that the volunteers and the folks needing donations share fundamental core causes, though the details of their circumstances differed, so I pushed more on how these differences arise. I thought about the 8 worldly conditions. Now I have pushed on this topic a lot over the years and I have already considered how both impermanence, and the relativity of experiences, make these conditions a basic truth of the world. This basic nature of the world then is yet another shared core cause — if you are in this world, you are subject to this up/down, up/down cycle. Givers and receivers are just at different points in the cycle. My mom (who I was there volunteering with me) actually helped a lot calling out clear evidence of this shifting state; she commented, a bit critically, at folks driving through in fancy cars to pickup food and I saw that just because you could afford a Lexus yesterday it doesn’t mean you can afford groceries today.

Though in a single instant the givers and receivers may look worlds apart, the truth is we are sharing the same core causes of being there — we all keep becoming, and once we have become we need food, and upon becoming we will cycle between states of abundance and scarcity. What we share –whether we are in a high point, or at a low point – is the cycle of being and becoming in this world. What motivates becoming, hunger (desire). Hunger is dukkha. Once we become, we must labor for survival. Labor, struggle, is dukkha. What is the cycle of abundance and poverty, just states where there is more and less dukkha. What do we all share? We share the truth of this world, we share dukkha.

It looked like Eric’s job was going to be fully remote. Besides, his contract was coming to an end in the next few years, and we hoped we would have enough it retire. It was time to consider where to put down roots and build a life. Connecticut, which neither of us were particularly fond of, was always meant to be temporary, just a place close to Eric’s office.

We decided we would try out Pittsburgh – it was a mid-sized, affordable city, and it let us be closer to Eric’s family. When we visited, we fell in love with a house there and inquired about a purchase. The place was in default – bank owned – so there was to be an auction to determine the buyer. Eric and I signed-up to join the auction, scheduled for several months hence, and waited.

While we waited, we let our imaginations run wild: We considered the renovations we would make. The time we would get to spend with family. Life in our new neighborhood. With each passing day, our excitement, our delight rose to new heights.

When the auction day came, the home was already ours in our heads, we just needed to finalize the formalities. We were so sure we would be the highest bidders, there was only one other person signed-up for the auction and they didn’t seem all that serious. But at the last second, a dark hose bidder showed-up. A deep-pocked developer who convinced the judge to allow him to be part of the bidding, even though he had not followed procedure and signed-up in advance. Yup, you already know where this is heading — we lost the bid. We lost our house. We were crushed.

A few days later, I was thinking more about the course of events, about my disappointment, and it dawned on me – I was sad about loosing something I didn’t even have yet. Something I never had, and never will have.

The house was supposed to solve a future problem – giving us a place to live, a new life. My hunger is so pervasive, I am so use to it, that I don’t even need to relieve it to feel joy, just the belief I might relieve it later is enough to provide momentary contentment. But the other side is also true, just fantasy was enough to crush my heart with disappointment.

The thing about imagination is that, unlike reality, it is boundless. If I don’t even need to have to lose. My wants are infinite, my imagination on how to solve those wants, also infinite. So how can my dukkha be anything less than infinite as well?