Instead we talk about Nirvana, but What is the opposite of this mental state ?, is Samsara. If Nirvana is Peace, Samsara has some characteristics that make it a state of afflicted consciousness, lack of tranquility and recurrent suffering.
Lack of tranquility and recurring suffering
Actually most of us dwell, so to speak, in the mental state of Samsara. We are continuously dissatisfied and attentive to what in Tibetan culture and the rest of the East are known as worldly concerns: attachment to material goods and constant fear of losing them, clinging to reputation and constant fear of losing it, attachment to control and fear of losing it, finally clinging to pleasant sensations and fear of losing them.
Experiencing the above is not necessarily a bad thing, so to speak, the problem is that we relate to it as if it were permanent and invulnerable and in reality it is totally the opposite is conditioned, material goods wear out, get lost or stop looking like us attractive, fame or reputation is so fragile that it depends on our moods and conditions demanded by those who confer it, control also depends on others granting it to us and sensory pleasure is so sensitive that, for example, if we enjoy a delicious chocolate at the moment we finish eating it ends the taste and possibly if we eat more we can stop seeing it as something desirable, ultimately it depends on our moods .
it depends on our moods
This is the conditioned existence, an important teacher in the tradition of the East affirmed: "Poor men ... looking for happiness and running in the opposite direction" ... and what reason is it that we seek happiness in the unconditioned and permanent ... when all that surrounds us exists in the opposite way.
It is enough to dare to look for something that is permanent, that has never been conditioned in our life and the news here is that there is nothing like that, the relationship with our parents, children, material things depend on time, place, death, the disease, its emotional state or its durability.
Nothing in samsara is stable or permanent, so nirvana is peace, when we understand that projecting these characteristics to things and people is not useful and generates too much suffering. Then, we enjoy what we have and understand that it can change or disappear because it is its nature . You let it go, you don't hold on, you don't suffer.
Nor does it mean that we do not enjoy our surroundings, only that we must do so with the awareness that at some point it will change or disappear. We will find other things and people and move on.
detachment is not lack of interest
We should only be careful when we talk about detachment, because we can take it to the extreme of lack of interest, and it is not, it is just letting go what has to go naturally and enjoying what is in our moment with clarity and satisfaction .
The ideal is Nirvana to remain in peace, but if we link with what surrounds us consciously of its temporality and conditionality it is already a great beginning that at some time cultivating that state will provide us with tranquility, which is much very different from the agitation, anxiety and greediness we experience in samsara.
It is never too late to start being happy and enjoy things as they are, as they exist, avoiding it will inevitably lead to suffering, and understanding it will lead us to the tranquility of non-conditionality. In the end things and situations are only in our mind, in how we relate in a final way to things . Do not waste time and enjoy things not as we want but, as they are, as they really exist.
AUTHOR: Pilar Vázquez, collaborator of the great family of the White Brotherhood
