Question: Desire is the memory of pleasure, and fear is the memory of pain. Both make the mind restless. Moments of pleasure are merely gaps in the stream of pain. If our natural state is joy, then why do we slip out of this state?
Speaker: When you have slipped out of that state, then you should enquire. The only way to learn about a state is to ask the question when you are in the state, or observe others who are not in that state. You will come to know.
Why does anybody slip out of that state? Why does anybody slip out of peace? The primary cause is the body itself. The primary cause is that you are born. Kabir says, “Your first problem is that you are born.” If you are born, then you have created opportunity for conditioning to take place. Start from there. So why is suffering there? Because all this is there.
Suffering is there. For exactly the same reason this wall is there. This wall is there, just as the body is there. This wall is there, using the same faculties that the body uses. So as long as this wall is there, suffering will be there. This wall is there because you are a body. This world is there because the mind is like this. As long as this world is, there is suffering.
Why is all this there? That may not be a very useful question. A better question might be- what is all this that is there? Understand the difference. Whenever you say,”Why is this happening?”, you are being ungrateful. The question of ‘why’ always has a little bit of complaint in it. “Why is all this?” It always has a little bit of rejection in it. It always has a little bit of judgement in it. The question of ‘what’ has love in it. Because you can ask ‘what’ only when you come close to something.
