How does suffering come from desire and impede happiness?
by Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering
Even if you are only vaguely familiar with Buddhist thought you have most likely heard that the cause of suffering is desire. On the surface, this seems logical, because if we want something we long for it and this causes discomfort. But the actual mechanism for this phenomenon goes much deeper.
Suffering comes from the egoic mind, which is the mind that has been conditioned by many psychological influences by parents, relatives, authority figures, religion, culture, society, and more. This mind forms a sense of self, or what you call “me,” or “I.” It is this mind that acts as the lens through which most people perceive the world.
It is the egoic mind that affects clings to all sorts of thoughts — memories, ideas, fears, likes and dislikes, problems, daydreams, hopes, dreams, and so much more.
The egoic mind, the sense of self, suffers because it does not realize that it is already complete and whole — it doesn’t realize that it is the totality of consciousness. Therefore, it seeks to obtain, retain, and attain. But because the self can never be whole, it suffers from the desire to have pleasure and to avoid pain.
You can think of the egoic self as a little tide pool that, because it is stuck in the rocks, cannot see its way to know that it is not separate from the ocean. Its whole worldview is separation and longing.
Desire to avoid pain in the future manifests as depression and anxiety. Focusing on the pain of the past also causes depression and anxiety. Both of these are forms of suffering. These are expressed in myriad questions that are heir to the human experience — Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? How can I be happy? Why do things happen to me? Where am I going? What will happen to me?and all of the “what if” questions you can possibly think of.
In psychology it is said that the subconscious is the place of stored memories, but where are they stored? No one seems to know. In actuality, it seems as though what is really happening is that the mind has a tendency to focus on certain thoughts, and because of this it dwells upon the thoughts of memory. To make matters worse, such thoughts are projected into the future. We call this worrying.
These thoughts of the past are readily available in consciousness, available to be “found” and dwelt upon. Because the thoughts are so strong they cause suffering in the present even though they are of the past. And they affect the future sense of happiness because they are not released.
Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, said, “I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering. Neither social conditioning nor education nor ideology affect this. From the very core of our being, we simply desire contentment. I don’t know whether the universe, with its countless galaxies, stars and planets, has a deeper meaning or not, but at the very least, it is clear that we humans who live on this earth face the task of making a happy life for ourselves. Therefore, it is important to discover what will bring about the greatest degree of happiness.”
What will bring about the greatest degree of happiness?
There is something implied in this phrase by the Dalai Lama — “the greatest degree of happiness,” because there are lesser and greater degrees. The lesser degrees of happiness include temporary distractions, entertainment, sports, and even meditation. These take the attention off of suffering and off of troubling thoughts.
Ultimately the greatest degree of happiness comes from the realization that the egoic mind is no more than a belief and that you are already whole and in need of nothing. When this is realized then desire is extinguished, and therefore so is suffering.
