The desirer

A desirer is implicit in the Four Noble Truths although it is never stated.  The desirer is in reality mind in search of itself which doesn’t know itself as pure Mind although it is potentially.  As a consequence of this non-knowledge (avidya) the mind/desirer posits itself differently.    

In rebirth (pratisamdhi) the desirer engages with psychophysical existence (= Five Aggregates/skandhas), this taking place during biological conception.  The desirer has wrongly taken this kind of being to be itself as if to bring it happiness.  As a consequence of this mistake suffering arises for the desirer.  Thus, we are able to understand the importance of the Noble Truths.

Suffering is an endogenetic condition, this is to say, suffering is internal being now the desirer individuated in the Five Aggregates as in, “I am this.”  We can say at this point that the desirer is not actually suffering but only appears to suffer so long as it is attached to the psychophyscial being, strongly desiring such an existence.  Were the desirer, on the other hand, to perfectly connect (samadhi) with pure Mind, suffering could not arise relative to the degree of connection.

When we become aware of suffering, paradoxically, we seem to sense a part of us that is not suffering; that is almost coincident with the suffering part—but not quite.  This is really a binary condition of the desirer continually linking with the Five Aggregates, i.e., the psychophysical being.  We might otherwise call this craving in which the desirer deepens its engagement with the corporeal body.   To break this unnatural linkage is key to winning enlightenment.  Yet, this is not so easy to accomplish given the degree of craving.  

Also I hasten to inject this thought, that the desirer lacks satisfaction with the desired condition since desiring always falls short of enlightenment (sambodhi).  This is a metaphysical dissatisfaction since the desirer seeks itself which, in truth, is pure Mind—never the Five Aggregates.  The dissatisfaction propels the desirer from from one life to the next.

If the desirer can make a connection with pure Mind—if only for an instant—non-physical joy arises along with the cessation of desire.  At this point one becomes a Bodhisattva (P., bodhisatto) who is attached to Bodhi if we use the Pali definition of satta which can mean "being" and also "attachment" as in satto candaliya (trans., enamored of a low-caste woman).  At this stage the desirer, we could say, is now desiring to engage perfectly with Bodhi, i.e., samyak sambodhi.

The bulk of common beings (prithagjana) as desirers, are obsessed with the Five Aggregates.  By craving the aggregates such craving becomes even more intensified; not diminished.  Those common beings, on the other hand, who desire the transcendent, which resides above the temporal world, are those beings who are better able to distance themselves from craving and pursue truth.  

Comments

[Capt.Knuckle&Flapjack]

Flapjack says even though he was tripping hard on goof-pills and eating a 30oz. ribeye whilst reading the bible, he thought your article was like, you know; it made him zone out into that sweet spot where like everything is one,

or somethin.