This post has been brewing as I’ve been feeling my general disdain for the messages abound that are competing for my attention. I wrote this blog post a few months ago while noticing the craving that would arise in me when exposed to certain ads. What was most fascinating for me was that due to a pretty committed body based meditation practice, I could sense the stirring moment when the craving would arise. I would see an image and suddenly I could feel a flutter of anxious ache, desire, longing, want, craving.
It may be that most of our environment acts as a trigger to call us towards something other than what we have. Advertising is the obvious beast, but I’m speaking beyond that. As I look around the room I am in, I am reminded of things I want to get done, books I’ve yet to read, stuff I want to get rid of and stuff I want to acquire. There is something in me that feels insatiable. More, better, different.
The projection onto object feels immediate. When that stirring sensation in the body begins, we rarely notice it. For most of us, craving feels like the following is true: “Once I get this (object, experience) then I will be satisfied.” But in these moments, the lie is that our craving has anything to do with the desired object, experience, circumstance or the like. Once we get it, we’ll want for something else. So what can we do with this? What does it take to be slow enough, awake enough, tuned into the subtlety of our direct experience enough to notice our insatiable desire before it latches to an object, lies to us and propels us into action towards satiating our craving?
I think one of the most important pieces of waking up and living in any kind of sustainable way, within and without is to become intimate with our own internal impulses, to notice what grips us and pulls us so that we can practice more skillfully and mindfully when making choices, rather than indulging our immediate and self-gratifying reactions.
I cam across this adbusters peice and appreciated its irreverant call for personal responsibility:
WHO THE F**K DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
You blame China. You blame India. You blame America. You blame the CEO's, the oil companies, the vague incoherent 'system,' the international regulatory regimes, the hypocricy of the left, the righteousness of the right, the educators, the economy, your parents, your childhood, your job, your bank account, your mental health, your government, everyone and everything but yourself. Wake up! This is no joke. Ecocide is actually happening and your five planet-lifestyle is the promary cause of it.
