Hooked

Contemplating non-craving is another way to practice the concentration on aimlessness. Each one of us has a big block of craving inside. We’re always looking outside ourselves for something to make us feel satisfied and complete —whether it is food, sensual pleasures, money, a relationship, social status, or success. But so long as we have the energy of craving in us, we’re never satisfied with what we have and with who we are right now, and true happiness is not possible. The energy of craving sucks us into the future. We lose all our peace and freedom in the present moment and feel we can’t be happy until we’ve got what we’re craving. But even if you do get the object of your craving, you never feel truly fulfilled. Like a dog chewing on a bare bone, no matter how many hours you gnaw at your craving, you never feel satisfied. You never feel that you have enough. Infatuation can become a kind of prison preventing us from touching true happiness and freedom. We may spend our lives chasing after wealth, status, influence, and sensual pleasures, thinking they will improve the quality of our life. And yet we end up not having any time left to live. Our life becomes just a means to make money and become “someone.” The Buddha used the image of a fish biting on an attractive bait. The fish doesn’t know that there’s a hook hidden in the bait. It looks so delicious, but as soon as the fish bites, it gets hooked and caught. The same is true with us. We run after things that seem very desirable—like money, power, and sex—without realizing the danger in them. We destroy our body and mind chasing after these things, and yet still we continue chasing them. Just as there’s a hook hidden in the bait, there is danger hidden in the object of our craving. Once we can see the hook, whatever it is we’re craving simply won’t be appealing anymore, and we’ll be free. At first we think that if we let go of what we’re craving, we’ll lose a lot. But when you finally release it, you see that you have not lost anything after all. You are even richer than before, because you have your freedom, and you have the present moment, just like the farmer who sold everything in order to buy the treasure in the field.