Desire and aversion my day. I want this to happen, I pray that doesn't. They are really the same: desire is to want something, and aversion is to want something. Wanting sets me up for suffering because it matters when I can't have what I want.
Mindfulness allows me to notice my desires and my responses to them, both when they are fulfilled and when they are not. I notice that the things I wanted desperately ten years ago, I don't even notice today. The distress I felt over the things I didn't get tens years ago is not even a ripple in today's serenity. It seems my intense and overwhelming needs were only temporary, arising out of nowhere to crash through me before fading away again.
Of course, when I am in the grip of desire, it seems concrete and permanent, a palpable force. A mindful approach would suggest that such a moment is the perfect time to look more closely at this phenomenon, to question its seeming solidity. If I want and I don't have, is my only choice to suffer over the lack? Or am I suffering over an illusion?
If my desire is passing, is it necessary that I turn my attention to it and feed it? Should I allow it to rule this moment? Or, can I elect to turn my attention to the next thing in my moment, knowing that my desire is simply a passing sensation? Should such a fleeting thing be allowed to hijack my attention?
Our desires are enticing, captivating, bewitching. They masquerade as real, lasting needs, yet they have no more substance than any other illusion. It is not the presence of desire that causes the pain, but rather the way it passes itself off as something to which I must attend intently, in which I must immerse myself. If I manage my attention, my mindfulness, such that I do not dwell upon the desire, do I reduce the harm? Try this yourself and tell me.
