Today I want to talk about one cause of dukkha or suffering. Dukkha is a Sanskrit word for suffering or dissatisfaction. This comes from the Buddha’s four Noble truths. 
 
We think that suffering or unhappiness is due to causes outside of ourselves. 
 
The Buddha said if you want to find the true source of your unhappiness you must look inside yourself. 
 
• Suffering isn’t a punishment inflicted by other persons, life circumstances, or some supernatural force outside of yourself. 
 
• Nor does suffering come to you for no reason at all 
 
• Suffering isn’t a random occurrence in a meaningless universe governed by the laws of chance. 
 
• Instead the suffering or dissatisfaction you experience is directly related to attitudes that arise within your own heart and mind – and today I want to talk about just one of those attitudes… 
 
One form of dukkha is trishna which is a Sanskrit word that translated means “thirst” or sometimes translated as “desire.” 
 
Trishna can sneak its way into many aspects of our lives. It is simply that feeling that things aren’t quite right. It is when you wish things were somehow different than the way they are. 
 
When you think of “thirst” you think about satisfying a craving – in this case water. But how often is there a situation you wish/thirst for different than it is? And the more you wish the situation were different the more you suffer. This is very much like a man dying of thirst in the desert. He wants something he can’t have. Aren’t we often just like that? 
 
Just last week I found myself caught in the trap of trishna. I am one of the co-chairs of the Kansas City Interfaith Council’s “Table of Faiths” luncheon. The co-chairs met recently and decided on the format and nature of the program for the luncheon. Then last week one of the other co-chairs sent out e-mails to the other co-chairs completing changing and undoing what we had decided. I found myself very annoyed by this person’s actions. Later we worked it out in a telephone conference and it was only then that I realized how I was responding to “trishna.” I didn’t want someone changing the plans – I wanted things they way we had decided them and I didn’t want someone changing them. 
 
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t speak up and voice your opinion. But the more “attached” to your idea of how things should be – the more likely your response may not be kind and compassionate. You can affect change without yelling and shouting your view – just look at the example of how Gandhi or Mother Theresa affected change in a quiet peaceful way.  
 
This may surprise you, but the people who I have seen who deal with trishna the best are inmates. I am very serious. They live in a world that is often unfair, and filled with disappointments. So many things are beyond their control. They have no say over who they share a cell with, the clothing they wear, the food they eat or the times they eat it. But the long term convicts learn to accept things the way they are – or they suffer more. 
 
Meditation practice helps with the problems of trishna. Through meditation practice we begin to see the world in a more spacious way. We can begin to develop some buoyancy and and lightness in our approach to problems. Problems don’t seem as solid. 
 
First you must be aware of trishna – of wanting something different than it is. Then locate the feeling of trishna in yourself sit with it, feel it – notice what happens with it. You may think it is constant but it isn’t – it comes and goes. 
 
Meditate on the feeling – takes the focus off the storyline, off the words, and the connection – instead focus on just the feeling itself and you will find it isn’t as solid as you thought. 
 
Remember suffering isn’t caused by external forces but caused by the attitudes of our own mind – which we can choose to change.