According to Buddha, the root of all suffering is wanting.
Wanting means grasping after things and experiences to make you feel better. I see this playing out in my life literally all the time. I fixate on the food I am going to eat, I imagine how I can make my home nicer, I wish people would be more accommodating to my needs, I dream of my future life, I buy more things than I need.
The root of all of this is a dissatisfaction with the way things are right now. It is like feeling hungry all the time. As soon as I satisfy one of my desires, another one pops up immediately to take its place, and on and on it goes.
Except for one moment in my day.
When I am meditating I simply am. Nothing to add, nothing to take away, nothing to do. I am for this brief time at peace with everything just as it is.
This is the solution that Buddha points us towards, the solution to human suffering. This is the practice that teaches you to be ok with yourself and the world exactly as it is. This is the art and practice of being ok.
I need to carry this feeling of being ok into the rest of my life. It is difficult to do this in our society that seems to want me to stay hungry. All the marketing, social media and drama of the news play on my fears and insecurities causing me to seek comfort and distraction. It is so easy to forget that I am ok. But I am, really, ok.
Photo by Soroush Karimion Unsplash