That which produces the totality of our dissatisfaction, which produces our suffering and our problems in life, that which is underlying any trouble we may face is an inherent desire, more specifically, a desire for things to be otherwise. What we find in comparison to our desires for things to be otherwise, in a retrospective deterministic causal explanation, is that things could not have been otherwise, in a historical sense that is. While the past is overdetermined, and we can see its solidity, desire permeates our present moment in aspiring to produce an idealized future. This desire for our present moment to be fulfilled, for our dissatisfaction and our striving to produce a state that is altogether content, and free of desire, the striving for a better mode of being, station in life, or other aims and goals, naturally occupies our minds, and can be a catalyst for change. Regardless of the nature of desire, being that it ultimately causes us dissatisfaction, sometimes that dissatisfaction is what we must be okay with in order to initiate a meaningful change in the future. It is not the suffering we must aim at removing, or the desire, it is our aversion to desire, and our aversion to fail in achieving desire.

The whole “be okay with the present moment,” seems to be an endeavor of self-preservation, a sign of weakness in escaping from the dissatisfaction inherent in attempting to create something worthwhile. It is not a sign of strength to be okay with yourself in the present, but a lack of courage in striving for a better future. While inner peace is great, and with less desires we can achieve higher degrees of it, the growth of consciousness, in understanding reality, and the pursuit of wellbeing for yourself and those you care about in the future is not a lesser good. While it may take removing unwholesome desire to be able to spend more time engaged with the things that are important to you, and that is undoubtedly a good thing, the notion that we should be okay with how things are in the present is only half of the truth. We should not be irrationally guided, or act out of anger or hate or revenge in the moment, the feeling of which will naturally arise, and we must be okay with inaction in regards to the carrying out of such phenomena, but on the flip side we should seek to foster an environment that is conducive to meaningful growth, and not settle for what is currently at hand. In this way, desire, or will, and the dissatisfaction it brings, is both a positive and a negative, and it is with practical wisdom in knowing which phenomena are worthy in pursuing, and which distract us or are a hindrance to us, that truly counts.

We must look to see both sides of all phenomena, and strive to minimize the effect of the side we rationally judge to be inconsistent with our values, while diligently pursuing the other side, yet keeping both in mind under a larger umbrella notion that they both are within us, and two sides to the same truthful reality. Wisdom is knowing how to deal with the knowledge consciously, and how to utilize it practically within our lives. Many people claim they believe something but their actions reveal their true beliefs. It is in actively pursuing in spite of dissatisfaction, not any desire which arises, but those desires aimed at what our consciously constructed interpretation of our underlying value structure deems to be most important, that we create a meaningful life. It is in the pursuit of meaning, that we find meaning, and it is in accordance with out constant dissatisfaction, our imperfection, our flaws, and our will to change, that we must learn to embody in directing our Being towards meaning. It is in their integration, and their utilization, that we best navigate life. If we do not do so consciously, the will, the desire, the dissatisfaction, will not disappear, it will merely subconsciously exist and drive our Being in the directions which our perceptual and embodied totality deems to be most important. We must guide this process consciously, towards directions which produce the most optimal results, the said direction, the aims, the results, ought to be consciously formulated and deduced rationally, rather than be the unconscious pursuits of the biological and culturally conditioned system. To pursue our own values, is to live authentically, to follow the course of a cultural and biologically guided existence is to live unauthentically, and in discordance with what truly matters to us.