Today's Lesson from the Buddha

MOOD: calmer


Grasping is the source of all our problems. Since impermanence to us spells
anguish, we grasp on to things desperately, even though all things change.
We are terrified of letting go, terrified, in fact, of living at all, since
learning to live is learning to let go. And this is the tragedy and the
irony of our struggle to hold on: Not only is it impossible, but it brings
us the very pain we are seeking to avoid.

The intention behind grasping may not in itself be bad; there’s nothing
wrong with the desire to be happy, but what we try to grasp on to is by
nature ungraspable.