No matter our circumstances, temperament or beliefs, there is one desire that all of us share: We want to be happy. We may not agree about what happiness is or where it is to be found, but the longing itself runs through everyone.
This desire is normally understood to belong to us as an individual, that it arises in us and that it is ours to satisfy. I would suggest, however, that its origin lies elsewhere. It is the movement of the infinite within the finite, the pull that our true nature exerts upon itself when it has apparently become something less than itself.
The portion we are exploring this week runs from the start of the chapter at the top of page 183 through to the section break on page 186,* tracing the desire for happiness back to the contraction from which it arises.
*(The page numbers indicated here each week refer to the original publication of the physical book – they may vary slightly from more recent versions, owing to the publisher’s design modifications.)
Infinite awareness localises itself as an apparently finite mind, or individual self, by rising in the form of perception. You can check this in your own experience. It is your faculties of perception, that is, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling, that make you feel that you are a located entity.
This contraction of awareness is felt as the experience of suffering, and the inexorable force toward the natural state of equilibrium is felt as the desire for freedom, peace and happiness.
It is this apparent contraction of itself into a finite mind that squeezes, as it were, the infinite into the finite. As a result, it sets up a force in the finite that is always trying to return to its natural expanded state of equilibrium. This tension is hardwired into our finite minds, and it is felt by the individual as an existential sense of lack.
