Freedom from Desire

Seeking and avoiding are two sides of the coin named desire: there can’t be one without the other. 

Desire is the belief that we will be happy/safe/fulfilled/at peace if something is different than it is – if we have either more or less of that something. Which is a trap, because we can’t accept what is as we strive for how we want it to be. This is to be in conflict with the reality of the present, with what is: we don’t want it. And to be in conflict with reality is to suffer – obviously! 

Ironically, therefore, our attempts to seek happiness and avoid unhappiness, ensure that we are never truly happy! Afterall, when our goal, our desire, is attained, we soon set another. 

Whatever we either seek or avoid, has its opposite, its dual aspect. So, within the seeking of what we want is the avoidance of what we don’t want; within the avoidance of what we don’t want is the seeking of what we do want. For example, in the seeking of wealth is the avoidance of poverty. We are holding on to both: seeking wealth and avoiding poverty. They are the dualities, the opposing energies on the continuum of our relationship with money.  

Whatever the continuum is, we become trapped in it until we are aware of both sides - what we seek and what we avoid, what we want and what we don’t want. So, for as long as we seek pleasure, we will know pain. As long as we seek happiness, we will know unhappiness. The high will be followed by the low. Until we realise what we are running from, we will never have enough and will keep chasing more. 

In realising that there is nothing to seek, we have it all. In realising that there is no destination, we arrive. When we stop searching, when we stop trying to become and just be, we awaken to the inner peace of our true nature. We consciously embody the perfection that is Life. 

This is freedom.