What is our problem? – Part 3
What is man’s most basic problem? This question has been asked for many many centuries. Religions say it is mans need for God. Sociologists say it is one form or another of the “Heirarchy of Needs”, or social or relationship dysfunction….. Car salesmen say you need a new shiny car!
The Common Message we hear from this is “We need something”.
Most Buddhists frame it “We suffer because we are attached to things”.
Most Christians frame it “Man is fallen from his rightful relationship with God and needs to be saved from his fallenness, and therefore needs a savior as an intermediary to bring him back”
I am quite certain that the Muslims storyline is something similar.
So, the Common Thread in these storylines seems to be “Humans feel unsatisfied”.
We look outside our body, we look inside ourselves, but there seems to be something lacking. Some folks don’t like to hear this, and disagree, but honestly, if you watch yourself or anyones life, you will find that we are all busy “doing something to fill the void”. What void is that? (note: cell phones, video games, movies, tv, sports, beer, pot, tobacco, sex …. OMG take those things away, and where would we be?!!) We would be totally bored!….. but what is that boredom saying???? It is saying “I need something that I don’t have”.
So we might call mans main problem “neediness”. Does that seem a fair assumption?
So what is it that we truly need, and where does the need arise from?
We live in a world where the basic needs are for food, shelter, sex, love, acceptance etc.
All these needs are pointed “outside our body”, with something outside us, needed to fulfill them.
But…………….. after our tummy is full, and we are on a warm bed, and we still feel needy, where is that neediness rising from? Is it mental illness? Emotional illness?
I am going to propose that this neediness rises from a deep knowledge that we are “a part of something bigger than ourselves”, but that we have become lost in a storm…. in the DNA world of needs and satiation. I am going to propose that it is our internal GPS signal. (Pointing us back to our true self)
So, if that were the case, then in a way, the religions would have a point. We are lost in this DNA life….. and if it is a dream, pinch me….. i wanna wake up!
But we wake up, and the only “REAL” thing, is this DNA world…..
Ask anyone where they came from, and past where they make a joke like “from my mothers belly”, the answer is “I don’t know”. “How should I know?”
So the question arises “how could a self-aware “being” be in this situation….. I am here but I don’t know how I got here, or where I am going….
Now, if mans basic problem is neediness, and if all the things exterior to himself cannot bring him lasting satisfaction, then is the problem “all in our heads”? Or is there a real problem, and along with it, possibly a solution?
These seem to be the facts. “We are a DNA animal living for a short lifetime, on a small planet, circling a small star, in no central position in an infinite universe. (and no responsible aliens, at least up until today !!)…. yikes, makes me want to find a God to save me!…….er… sorry for the outburst 🙂
Why would we be feeling empty inside, after we have eaten, had sex, and are laying comfortably on a soft mattress, and have enough money in the bank? As Jim Carrey said “I wish everyone could have great fame and fortune, so they could realize that it does not bring satisfaction to our deep needs.” (my paraphrase)
When we look at the sadness and disappointment of many of our idols and heroes in movies, sports and music, this statement can certainly be called a fact. It seems the more a person obtains, the less satisfied they are, the more greedy or disappointed they get….. so they need some cause or another to try to fill the void… but even the most lofty causes can’t fill it…. and despair sets in again…..
We spend a lifetime looking for that special person (a lover, an enlightened teacher, a wise leader) to love and accept us …….. or for enough food, enough money, enough fame, enough love, enough safety, and we end up, at the end of our lives, passing back into the ether with our hands empty, just as we came into this world. And even the knowledge of what we are doing, does not stop us from our feverish pursuit.
Perhaps our pursuit of these things is feverish simply because we are trying to outrun our sense of emptiness, our sense of neediness.
Honesty tells most of us that this is the simply bare fact of life.
But then we might reach out to religion looking for answers (still reaching outward, eh?), and find that those who offer to teach us are just as messed up, lost, and needy as we are (or they are jealous, and critical, and haughty, seeing themselves as higher than those around them)… (and if you think you have found a truly pure one….. wait for it…… oops, their pure humanity is showing) …. so many of us stop looking for answers out of disappointment and hopelessness. Some of us end up being harmful, angry animals, feeling spiteful that we have been tricked or betrayed … finding ourselves in a world that we didn’t ask for, in circumstances which we did not select.
But some of us find solace in our beliefs (at least for a time). And if that is true for you, then you are either truly unique in this world, or you are lying to yourself, covering up your emptiness with a thick layer of doctrines and beliefs, and a painted on smile.
Most folks, when apart from our family or lovers, feel lost and alone, with no sense of hope other than in accumulating stuff in the world of things, which we already know does not bring us satisfaction for more than a few moments.
But
yes….. here it comes…..
if we are a part of the system….. like the bees in a bee colony, or the ants in an ant colony, (queen, worker, drone etc) then there is belonging, sense of purpose, and a “just do it” attitude, waiting for us. Why is simply being part of humanity on the face of this planet NOT enough to satisfy us?????????????????
I am going to propose, it is because we find ourselves “living” in a DNA world, with the sense of separation which this DNA body gives us, and this world of the 5 senses, in a way, blinds us from our deeper instincts of the interconnection of all things.
Reality is Dharma 
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