Resolution

In all our collective seekings, however disparate their paths may seem, what is ultimately sought is the same: resolution.

Elsewhere, I’ve said we seek happiness above all else. Now, I use the term resolution but refer to the same thing.

We become blind to this fact while we’re in the midst of our desire because desire has a way of driving us outward. Think of a desire as a crest of energy reaching out into the world, with us riding on that crest. The more intense the desire gets, the more progress we feel we’re making; we’re riding our desire father; we’re allowing us to take us closer to somewhere or something.

It’s worth asking, though: what is that place or that thing our desires take us toward?

The answer seems obvious. Our desires take us toward their object — toward our claiming of the thing we desire.

But what does that “claiming” feel like when it’s actually achieved? It doesn’t feel energetic the way desire does.

It feels like resolution. Like a return to our natural, baseline state.

I’ve spoken about this often in the past, but I feel it’s worth revisiting in a slightly new way.

You must understand that a choice is to be made in how you approach the world: You can chase the energetic nature of desires as far as they will stretch out into the world, or you can settle into the stable peace of resolution — but you cannot do both.

Herein lies the great misunderstanding. Because a desire energizes us — because we feel a “buzz” from it, for lack of a better word — we incorrectly predict that the fulfillment of that desire will lead to a similar but stronger buzz. Seduced by the energy inherent to the act of desiring (which we could probably more accurately call “agitation”), we assume that the fulfillment of desire will be experienced as an intensification of that same energy.

But fulfilling a desire does not intensify its energy — it resolves it. The desire's energy dies at the moment it is fulfilled.

And, as I’ve said in the past, this resolution doesn’t feel like anything — it’s a non-state. You’re already familiar with it because you feel it all the time.

People fear this fact. They worry that accepting it means they won’t be able to enjoy anything or that life will be boring. But that’s only because they’ve bound themselves to a cycle of agitation-resolution. They’re addicted to desire in the same way that people are addicted to any substance — they believe that the agitation or energy preceding the feeling of resolution is a necessary part of that resolution.

So, when you tell them to access the feeling of resolution directly, they take that to mean the exact opposite of what it actually does — they think they’re being told to live in a perpetual state of subtle agitation where resolution is never reached, but where the agitation never gets intense enough to be unbearable.

It is so, so, so easy to access the state of all your desires fulfilled and live there forever. To be free and happy all the time. Just step into resolution. You’re already familiar with it, and you already know it’s a non-state. So go there and live there.

Don’t get turned around in your mind wondering if you’re doing something wrong — that’s just a way of saying, “I’m trying to trade one state of agitation for another state of agitation, and I don’t know if I’m doing it right.”

But you’re not trading agitation for agitation. You’re trading it for resolution.

Surrender to your desires, and they’ll resolve. Then you’ll have them, and it won’t require the slightest bit of work on your part.

As always, good luck.