Buddhism

I’ve been reading a lot about Buddhism lately.  We touched on the subject in world civilizations class, but it wasn’t nearly in depth enough.  The heart of Buddhist teaching is that desire is the root of all suffering, which my teacher didn’t even mention.  That has to be one of the greatest teachings in the history of mankind, yet we don’t teach it in classrooms.  Lame.  

Few people realize it’s their desire that frequently hurts them, not other people.  People have desires to be safe, loved, recognized, wealthy, powerful, intelligent.  Anything or anyone who stands in their way gets blamed for their sufferings, when in fact it’s their own insecurities that are causing it. Wanting things we can’t have is the prime mover of instability in our world. 

It’s hard for people to see this because taking responsibility for our suffering means we have no one to blame but ourselves.  We like to complain, point the finger, make a fuss over matters we have more control over than we realize.  I’ve been guilty of this myself in the past- very guilty.  But now that I see this, it’s easier to let go of the things I can’t have.  That may seem like a lifeless proposition; however, I think it’s a sign of maturity more than anything. 

Some people want things so bad that they end up destroying the things they love.  It almost happened to me.  It could happen to you if you don’t let go of desire.  Desire fuels our need for control, destroying everything in its path.  Don’t feed the fire, let it burn out.