I read this line about letting go of the agenda of your personality and it really struck a cord with me. Isn't that what we're all doing all the time, running around trying to appease this personality that we cling so strongly to. The discomfort of doing things that don't appease our personality usually cause us to shy away and go back into the comfort zone seeking pleasure and safety in the same old ways.
I know for me, I experience anxiety when I am pushed outside of my safety personality zone, yet I almost always feel strong, renewed and invigorated having stepped outside what my personality naturally craves.
Less about suppression of natural desire, more about realizing that just because a desire or aversion arises doesn't mean you need to do anything about it. Pema talks about seeing the aversion, desire, or ignorance and not pushing it away but embracing it and watching it dissipate.
In a culture driven by me, me, me and consumption, I feel like we could all use a little impulse control. Just because I am feeling uncomfortable, either with desire or aversion, doesn't mean anything needs to change. Discomfort is okay, in fact, discomfort is often the signal that things are changing and expanding.
Food is a big craving, desire are for me. But it's also an area where it's easy to see the release when you let the craving pass without bowing to it.
It's funny how we all have our cravings and aversions and they can be completely opposite from one another. It's also funny how some cravings and aversions have earned cultural stigmas or "bad" labels while others are "good". People become addicted to exercise or controlling their diets and it's considered a positive thing (even when it's excessive). But people who are addicted to McDonald's and sex are deemed as deviants and people with no self-control.
It all just comes down to what we find pleasure in and how often we reinforce the cycle of craving, fulfillment, pleasure.
No comments:
Post a Comment