You might say, it is impossible not to desire. Let’s start on that…

There are basic desires, or shall we call them necessities for survival: Food, basic shelter, heating, water, basic clothing, and air. I might desire those, but some of those desires can be met at ease unless you live in an extremely poor country or ‘your case I am not aware of’.

However, in order to meet these you need something called: Money. To get this shiny thing, society tells that you must desire it because IT will solve ALL your problems.

This is the first big lie. But, hey… Don’t get me wrong everybody needs to find their own ways to survive. But the belief that money does buy happiness is a lie. Even reaching your goals is not really happiness. It might feel nice for a while, but that feeling fades as your attention begins to be drawn toward a new desire.

The key word here is: Attention.

The key to eradicate suffering is attention (i.e. an awareness of our desires). It is through this attention that one can observe the source of our desires as an open lens that does not judge.

The need to fulfill desires is what drives people to have power. This becomes a destructive and selfish goal of having power over others if the desire becomes difficult to attain. The more difficult to attain, the more one desires to have power to do as one would wish.

If such power does not provide that desire, one can end up feeling frustration that is parallel to suffering.

Can you see the cycle? Let’s break it down. The cycle might not be in this order. It is only as a purpose to exemplify some inner tendencies.

01I have a wish, thus I want power to fulfill that wish.

02 I want power because I must have what I expect or even “deserve”.

03If I do not get what I want, I will be violent because I feel frustration.

04If I feel frustration, I will be suffering until I get what I want.

05If I do get what I want, it will not satisfy me… So, I will need something else to want.

What to end it? Want to end suffering? Be aware of your desires, and decide:

Does having this desire deserve my happiness? Am I willing to trade my happiness for something I want? Would it be better to be happy with what I am able to have? What does “enough is enough” mean?

Photo Credit: by swamysk

Society as a group of people is just an aspect of the collective mind, it is the conjunction of different factors like: the general state of consciousness of the population, your inner division (what you believe vs. others believe) causing peer pressure, and the clear necessity of doing something, to reach a certain ideal like beauty, money, power,etc. because it is well seen by the population.

To be unaware how the collective mind influences; can affect us in such a way we become prisoners of their ideals without asking ourselves: What is my passion? Do I work and feel fulfilled with it? Who am I?

I have tried to imagine why can we become prisoners of our collective (social) minds; It occurred to me (may be wrong) it is our fears, the need of acceptance, and to feel secure the reasons we loose our freedom.

Freedom is not about being a “free country”; Freedom is about a free “you”, and that does not mean to do whatever you want, but to have the ability understand who are you, then you will know how does freedom really apply to each one of us.

For example, if the collective part of us (our culture) accepts something, then we don’t have to think stuff for ourselves, and most act as the general agreement. As a result, we stop challenging the true meanings of life. We get accustomed and accept the supposed “fact”:

What is wrong with that?

Culture implies: Life is just that. Get over it! Use your mind on things that produce results, like money (results the collectivity can use, and then assess as really good results).

However, the collective mind can be mistaken. It has been so many times along history. You always have a choice: To question or not to question, and find out things by yourself. Will you choose to become aware about your choices or will you choose to go with the flow?

The reason I believe we don’t question the collective mind as we should is that we don’t want to take full responsibility for our actions and its consequences.

If you can say,” It is not my fault. It is not my mistake. It is not my consequence It is the fault of the circumstances, it is the mistake of my parents, it is the consequence of a divorce, but never mine.” Then, you can have an excuse. You will not face the facts. You will not change, and this society will continue to degenerate.

Your choices affect everything because you are part of it all.

At the end, you cannot divide yourself just by thinking you are different from the collective mind. You are inside of it, but are free to be yourself if you know who you are.

Photo Credit: By krossbow | F Delventhal

Why does a country say it proclaims to have provide rights to its citizens, why does he limit those rights to aliens or immigrants? Why do countries and people live a double standard? What is going on?

One reason could be that in their minds a right has to be won. You have to win a citizenship, a position, experience, power, money, etc. Is this correct? Is this part of our goal oriented type of society that fools us into believing that there is an ultimate prize to be met?

For example, television commercials are all the day telling us what is the best and what should we buy. Is this good or bad? None. Why? The people who put those commercials on want to sell more.

The reasons: They want or need money for a believed “better life”. Is there a perfect balancing act in all of this? Is there a fundamental need of a radical shift?

Maybe or not, it all depends on what you think you deserve (your belief system). This is tricky because perspective is really important in order to communicate, but do we actually acknowledge the depth of awareness?

Can the earth sustain trillons of persons who seek and have that believed “better life”? Can we all have a car, big home with air condition, buy things at the grocery store, and forget about how does that food reach your table? Perhaps, we depend on how techonlogy becomes more efficient and earth friendly.

What is happening that big companies need to delay the progress of technology to have the most income? When does enough mean enough? When will we realize that the progress vs income has to take into account the way we are destroying the Earth by delaying GREEN techologies in our homes.

The fact is we can’t live like that, profit should not be before ecology, humanity, moral, ethics, justice, and truth. Suppose technology becomes friendly to the earth, and now we can live that “advanced better home”; what will happen then?

What is a “good home”? What does the concept “enough is enough” mean?

Will the entire population seek a another “better home”? Probably the ones who sell will continue to tell you “more is better and more is always possible”. Is this actually true?

Where will this kind of goal oriented society lead us? When will be stop and begin to think by ourselves instead of letting others fill our agendas? When will we be the leaders of our own fate as a human race instead of falling into the trap of the herd who believes as is told?

Photo Credit: By Lawrence Lew, O.P