patterns

At the age of twenty-nine Gautama slipped away from his palace 
in the middle of the night, leaving behind his family and possessions. 
He traveled as a homeless vagabond throughout northern India, searching
 for a way out of suffering.


 He visited ashrams and sat at the feet of gurus
 but nothing liberated him entirely - some dissatisfaction always remained. 

He did not despair. He resolved to investigate suffering on his own
 until he found a method for complete liberation. He spent six years
 meditating on the essence, causes and cures for human anguish.


 In the end he came to the realization that suffering is not caused
 by ill fortune, by social injustice, or by divine whims. 
Rather, suffering is caused by the behavior patterns
 of one's own mind.

 

 Gautama's insight was that no matter what the mind experiences, 
it usually reacts with craving, and craving always
 involves dissatisfaction. When the mind experiences something
 distasteful it craves to be rid of the irritation.


 When the mind experiences something pleasant,
 it craves that the pleasure will remain and will intensify.
 Therefore, the mind is always 
dissatisfied and restless. 

This is very clear when we experience unpleasant things,
 such as pain. As long as the pain continues, we are dissatisfied 
and do all we can to avoid it. Yet even when we experience pleasant
 things we are never content. We either fear that the pleasure
 might disappear, or we hope that it will intensify. 

People dream for years about finding love but are rarely satisfied 
when they find it. Some become anxious that their partner will leave; 
others feel that they have settled cheaply, and could have found 
someone better. And we all know people who manage to do both.

  ~ Yuval Noah Harari