February 2009 - WANT: So you have everything you want, now what?

It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy. Lucille Balll

I have now rambled on across these last 26 days. Some days I missed posting, some days I missed the point, but always I did what I wanted to do.

Let's say for argument sake that you have everything you want. Now what?

Did you find yourself? Are you now happy or at least happier?

Some interesting "wanting" quotes -

“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to” John Ed Pearce

“Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get” Ingrid Bergman (Swedish born American film and stage Actress, 1915-1982)

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are” Kurt Cobain (American Musician and Singer of the grunge rock band Nirvana. 1967-1994)

“I do not read advertisements - I would spend all my time wanting things” Franz Kafka (German Writer of visionary fiction, 1883-1924)
“It's weak and despicable to go on wanting things and not trying to get them” Joanna Field (English psychologist, b.1900)

“Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is” Vince Lombardi (American Football Coach, national symbol of single-minded determination to win.1913-1970)

Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.” Les Brown (American Author, Entrepreneur and motivational speaker)

“We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely… change is due to want power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now.” George Sheehan (American physician, author and running enthusiast, 1918 - 1993)

“When you can't have what you want, it's time to start wanting what you have.” Kathleen A. Sutton

So you have everything you want. Now what?

Retire! Go to some tropical island, sip fruit laden drinks, soak up the sun, be pampered and enjoy not wanting.
You know what? I listened to that sentence over and over. Everything was fine up until "not wanting".
If it read Go to some tropical island, sip fruit laden drinks, soak up the sun, be pampered and enjoy, all was good. By adding just the "not wanting", it really made me feel uncomfortable. Maybe it's just me. Perhaps I haven't dealt with ALL my insecurities or issues, but that "not wanting" just felt wrong.

I think that not wanting more things may be okay, but not wanting at all is not living.

I have been told that the definition of love in Buddhism is wanting others to be happy. I don't know if that is a fact.

Yet that seems to square okay with the Second Noble Truth?

The second truth is that suffering is caused by craving and aversion. We will suffer if we expect other people to conform to our expectation, if we want others to like us, if we do not get something we want,etc. In other words, getting what you want does not guarantee happiness. Rather than constantly struggling to get what you want, try to modify your wanting. Wanting deprives us of contentment and happiness. A lifetime of wanting and craving and especially the craving to continue to exist, creates a powerful energy which causes the individual to be born. So craving leads to physical suffering because it causes us to be reborn.

Perhaps that is what is next on that tropical isle, with drink in hand.

Rebirth.

And a little pampering!?