Go Back to the Bedroom

All suffering is caused by ignorance.  People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their own happiness and satisfaction.
-Dalai Lama (Desk top calendar; Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2018)

It is so ironic how these quotes always seem to match what I am reading about, listening to or thinking about when I read them each morning.

Let's look at the Dalai Lama's words which so echo so many other wise voices.

All suffering is caused by ignorance.

He begins by saying "all" suffering...not just some suffering but all suffering is caused by ignorance.  And what is ignorance?  Ignorance is not knowing where happiness truly originates.  It is assuming that it is found out there when it is found within us.  This ignorance puts us on a ceaseless, never ending quest of searching and seeking outside ourselves for something that is found inside.

I relayed this story before from Swami Vishnu-devananda's The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga (Three Rivers Press; 1988). 

The Search for the Golden Needle

There was a lady who was sewing with a precious golden needle that was near and dear to her heart.  While she was sewing in the dim light of her bedroom, she dropped the needle and panicked in fear that she had lost it.  In a desperate search to find it she went out to the garden and began searching frantically  for the needle under the bright moon's light.  A neighbor seeing her in the garden came over to help her find it. 

"What are we looking for ?" asked the neighbor. 

"A golden needle," the frantic older lady replied. 

"Well where about did you lose it?"  the neighbor questioned further, wanting to focus their search in the right area. 

"Oh ...I lost it in the bedroom." 

" In the bedroom???" The neighbor gasped exasperated, after hours of searching.  "Then why are we out here in the garden if it is the bedroom?' 

"Because there is not enough light in my bedroom.  There is more light out here and I can see better." (page 305)

Too many of us are like the old lady and  continue to suffer because of our ignorance.  In our sense of feeling like we lost something,  instead of turning toward the place where this happiness is and always was,  we search for it outside. How ignorant is that?

People inflict pain on others in their selfish[and misguided] pursuit

When we search outside the Self we may see clearly with the eyes on our heads but we do not "see" clearly, we search in ego's domain. To our physical senses this makes  sense right?  If I see it...it must be real.  I therefore must depend on my senses to help me find this happiness.  "My" senses; "my" happiness..."my" world...."my " search. 

This "me, my, and mine" focus that guides our search separates us from one and another. 
We look at others around us  only as tools to help us find our golden needles or enemies that stand in the way of our finding it.  We use them, we push them aside, we ignore them, we attack and defend because of them, we love them when they help us search in "our" gardens and we hate them when they don't!  In our desperate pursuit to be happy we can inflict pain on others even if we are not aware we are doing so.  It is a misguided pursuit when we do this, not only because we are looking in the place where happiness cannot be found, but because as long as we inflict pain on any one we will never be happy. 

of their own happiness and satisfaction.

This satisfaction and happiness we seek does not belong to the "little me"....it belongs to all. If I hurt my brother in an attempt to find it...I hurt myself.  By tracing my steps away from my misguided seeking ...back to the bedroom (the seat of the soul) even if I can't see in there with my physical eyes I will find what I am looking for. We do not need our senses, our ego's, our misguided thinking to find truth.  We just need a bit of stillness and a reconnection to what is real.  We will then understand that the happiness and satisfaction we seek is something we share with all. There is no "me", "my" or "mine" attached to the golden needle of truth.  It belongs to all. Happiness is not an individual pursuit.

All is well.

Swami Vishnu-devananda (1988) The Complete Illustrated Book of  Yoga. New York, NY : Three Rivers Press