Observing Desire

AA wrote: Danke, das regt zum Nachdenken an...

BB wrote: Jättebra Sabina! Jag vidarebefordrade det till sonen att läsa när han får ett par minuter över.

CC wrote: This is beautiful and helpful Sabina. Thank you!

Observing Desire

Observing desire without acting on it enlarges our freedom to choose how we live. 

                                                                 Tara Brach

Almost every moment of our lives we desire (or reject) something. We want the rain to stop falling and the sun to come forth, we’d like our partner to share our love for renaissance art, we crave for the beautiful sweater we saw in that store, we want to get rid of our back pain.

Often, our desires rule our world. They make us dissatisfied with life as it actually IS, since we constantly wish for it to be different. 

Luckily we can practice being aware of our desires: we can observe them and refrain from acting upon them. I can’t change the weather anyway, my partner has many other good qualities, and my wardrobe is full of nice sweaters. If I breathe in all the way to my back pain and just let it be, it may well diminish.  (If not, it is very relaxing to lie flat on the floor with my legs on the couch)

I do not want to be a slave, neither under anybody else nor under myself. That is why I practice observing the movements of my mind, its constant chatter and its wanting and rejecting. When I observe desire come and go without acting upon it and practice to put the focus outside of the constant chatter in my brain I have much better chances to consciously choose the kind of life I want to live.