In reference to our subjective experience of the content of the present moment perception available to us through mindfulness, we can discover that the content presented to us is of an essential axiomatic character (Mindfulness and Phenomenology). The axioms which we predominately wish to analyze here are those in which the Buddha claimed as fundamental and all applicable, in which we will alter slightly in their defining and expounding. The essences in question are those of desire and dissatisfaction with the present.

We find in our subjective experience our consciousness is directed towards objects of desire, whether these be in the form of mental or material content or physical acquisition or pursuit is indifferent to us here (abstract connections and the broad use of desire will be used throughout). Our consciousness is meaningfully directed towards the acquisition of its object of representation, one discoverable essence of this intentionality itself (not of the object of intention, but towards the very phenomena which is represented by the concept of intentionality or directedness) is its characteristic of desire. This desire is attempting to acquire something, which we experience as the object of attention. The essential nature of conscious direction with its foundation in desire necessarily implies that we do not currently posses the object of attention, placing us in a mode of deficiency. Coupled with the admission that we are in a constant state of directedness, which of course is transiently altered moment to moment, yet is founded upon an inherent desire which implies deficiency or lack, places a descriptive state of suffering, or unsatisfactoriness, as part of the normal state of being.

This all-experientially-pervasive aspect of Being in its totality, of unsatisfactoriness, drives our conscious experience both mentally and physically through life, and I believe is the natural product of evolutionary biology which truly seeks to work within the framework produced by evolution, towards the beneficiality of the genome (its survival, replication, copying fidelity). In recognizing dhukkha as being the first noble truth of life, in its essential nature being desire (contains desire to avoid, desire for change, desire for stability, in short, craving as well as clinging as well as aversion), the Buddha made the logical conclusion that if we wish to escape the dissatisfaction or suffering which characterizes our experience, which is discoverable by inflection and phenomenological analysis, we would have to eradicate desire. His conclusion on how to attain this is through following the noble eightfold path, which if carried out conclusively in perfect accordance with “the truth”, would lead to the dissolution of desire, which as being a fundamental underlying axiom supporting intentionality, would in turn eradicate suffering from our experience.

The problem is that in actuality, being biological beings, these terms are concrete and inherent in the very Being in which we are. Fortunately, we can recognize this nature, and find ways to realize the actuality of the first and second noble truths as being applicable as modes of the description of our Being, and based off the realization of such truths, work to navigate and become comfortable within the framework which we discovered to be underlying our existence. The framework of areas in which we could direct our intention to defining, and thus pursuing and through pursuit improving, is provided by the Buddha in his eightfold path… what each fold means, and the values inherent in them, are characterized through conceptualizations produced by us (or found in the conceptualization of values such as given by the Buddha, or philosophers, or other religions, etc. ) which in their defining and actualizing in a practical sense in our own experience can serve to a better or worse degree in improving our conscious apprehension of reality, as well as improving our wellbeing, and the wellbeing of those around us, in ways that are in alignment with our aforementioned value structure (Value Structure Instantiation). This understanding, pursuing and actualizing necessarily must include interactions with other Beings, as we discover them in our experience and thus they become part of the world which we wish to contend with, in recognizing the experientiality inherent in other beings, and possibility of better and worse states of being in in their experience, we are better enticed to follow better and worse moral structures in which to interact with the world, and thus to affect others.

In describing the framework of desire, if we wish to eradicate desire this itself becomes a second level of desire, if viewed from a phenomenological lens. E.g. in experience we may find ourselves contemplating the future, and our desire to have our present be in accordance with such imaginings. This produces an unsatisfactoriness experienced in the present, the result of desire. Thus we can hypothetically choose to follow the Buddha and seek to eradicate the desire, and thus we enter into the second dimension of desire in relation to the original object of desire (the actualization of a certain perception of the future.) In reference to this object we originally desired for its actualization in the first dimension, in the second dimension we desire to not desire this actualization or perhaps we simply desire to not attain that future perception. In any case, we are left wanting. The common Buddhist retort to the “problem of desiring to not desire” is that once we attain the object of our desire the desiring itself ceases. If we desire to go to the park, once we get to the park we no longer will desire to go to the park. If we desire to no longer desire, once we no longer desire, we will no longer desire. The only recognition that such a state of non-desire exists is a faith based claim upon the supernatural claim of Buddha’s attainment to it, which, if we analyze our experience, or anyone else that has ever lived, we can surely recognize the fallibility of such a claim. While it may be useful and beneficial to hold such a faith based belief structure, that path is wholly not the topic of our inquiry, as we seek to discover means of coping with our own experience, based on a phenomenologically sound base (as we so find in our experience, which is the limit to what we have to work with).The problem is that we cannot ever reach that place of nonexistent desire, and that desire itself is essential to the structure of our biological being and constitutes the very essence of our conscious experience, whether we like it, or believe it, or realize it, or not. I understand my own belief, finding, and perspective being here interjected, and wish to state that I believe my own belief itself to be fallible, and alterable, upon further evidence, which hitherto hasn’t presented itself to me, but altogether is unimportant to our pursuit of how to cope with the situations of a world we are currently “thrown” (Hiedeggerian) into.

By adding layers of desire in our quest to eradicate desire, we unknowingly are following the desire structure inherent in us. By seeking abstinence in response to overindulgence, we are merely trading one mode of Being for another, one set of actions for another, albeit perhaps with good intentions and good results, yet we are not escaping the desire structure. This isn’t a hopeless situation we find ourselves in, it isn’t good or bad, it merely is, and recognition of it can aide us in our conscious formulations of how to navigate through it.

Better or worse solutions are discoverable in response to navigating through the strata of suffering, intentionality, and desire. These can be improved by analyzing and expounding the eightfold path, or for better or worse through any other structuring of our Being we wish to view through. All methods of dealing with our current state of Being within the present moment are predicated on our acquired wisdom. The wiser we are, the better we handle the slings and arrows of misfortune, wisdom is the essential characteristic which represents our ability to traverse the landscape of life, and the noble eightfold path, as a method, is something we can utilize in the developing and implementing of wisdom. (Wisdom Ethics)