We are all chasing happiness. Or something we believe will bring happiness. Many of us are even chasing the ‘present moment’!
But the pursuit itself is tiring, exhausting. Never ends. Like a man chasing his shadow. We suffer.
This suffering is punctuated by monetary pleasures, where we think the pursuit has ended. Until we find it’s not. We find something else to chase.
The pursuit is the suffering.
It seems obvious that the only way for a pursuit to end is for us to get what we want…or to give up trying.
Mainstream spirituality, self-development and the zillions of paths out there promise exactly this. Eternal happiness. End of suffering, once and for all.
Some also promise ‘giving up’ but disguise it as ‘nothing matters’, ‘sab moh maya hai’, ‘its all pointless anyway’, ‘the chase is the egos making’, ‘give up and smoke up’.
Believe that you have transcended mediocre, messy humanity..and thereby the suffering that goes with it.
But the stink of giving up prevails. While others might clap their hands. We feel we have transcended, but we know we have not.
There is a third option though. Here the point is not the pursuit. The point is to understand the nature of what we are pursuing.
How it is born, where it comes from, what shapes it takes. Not out there as a concept. But within you.
Not how desires, pursuits, illusions, ego, delusions, suffering work.
But how YOUR desires, pursuits, illusions, ego, delusions, suffering. work.
Understanding for the sake of understanding. Curiosity.
Not ‘in order to..’ but because ‘I want to’.
Along this path, you might realize(not believe or prove to others) that the 2000 currency note YOU were hanging on to so dearly was a fake note.
Letting go of it becomes natural. Even if you do hold on to it, the desperation is gone. You can have fun, play the game – but it’s no longer a huge stakes game.
You are no longer ‘attached’ to the note. Not because it was ‘bad to’, or you ‘had to’…but cos you no longer ‘need to’.
But this realization has to happen as a a side effect.
The moment the ‘get the 2000 note’ or to ‘let go of the 2000 note’ or to ‘believe that the note is fake’ becomes a GOAL – things become worse. Like trying hard to not think of a ‘pink camel’. The more you try, the worse it gets.
Because the note was never the point, the underlying need was the point.
