Expect Nothing. Seek Nothing. Grasp Nothing.

We suffer because we desire. By desiring that our life unfolds a certain way, we open the door for pain. The key then would be to ultimately stop ourselves from desiring anything, because if you want nothing, you can’t suffer the pain of unmet desires, right? But is that merely possible?
In a society that thrives on competition and consumerism, the idea of not seeking more may seem unattainable. But the truth is that human beings attach themselves to things, people and aspects of life that are of temporary nature.

We’ve never been taught to embrace the impermanence of our own existence, and so it’s kind of impossible for us to accept that what we cling onto is as impermanent as we are. The fact that we have no control over this impermanence makes us go crazy. It makes us go so cray cray that we have made this unspoken rule to avoid talking about it at all costs.

However, the Universe is watching us fool ourselves. And he’s smart. He knows all too well that we turn on this avoidant coping mechanism in order to protect ourselves from one very scary human emotion: Fear. But the fact is that the more we avoid something, the more we invite that very thing to infiltrate us.

By choosing avoidance, instead of really getting rid of the object of our fear, we are instead perpetually keeping it locked within us. Obviously, we don’t know this on a conscious level, but like a library, our subconscious will make sure it gets stored properly until the day he’ll feel that we may be due to address the chapter of our life we previously didn’t want to face.

Our mind is our student.
We are his master.
Feed your mind with hurtful and aggressive thoughts, and like a well-behaved student, he’ll regurgitate all of it into your life. While we aren’t in control of all that goes on in the external world, we are fully in control of the magic – or perhaps the disaster that happens in our internal world.

We find ourselves sad and miserable not because we broke our phone and missed our flight, but rather because we are enslaved to our mind which makes us believe that this kind of situation isn’t acceptable. That this can’t happen. That this – our life – is now a disaster.

But our phone doesn’t miss us, its probably all fine wherever it is. And the plane we were supposed to board didn’t crash because we weren’t on it. It has probably landed already and is now on its way to a new destination. And yet – us – we are inflicting on ourselves suffering. We are self-flagellating ourselves over things that are continuing their course.