She looks around and sees so much suffering.
She feels the suffering because things are not as
she would like them to be.
She is discontented.
She wants things to be other than they are.
She desires many things to ease the pain.
She realizes that desiring things and not having
them make her discontented.
She realizes that desiring things and getting them
and being attached to them do not stop her from
being discontented.
She realizes that the problem is desiring.
She seeks to “get shed” of desiring.
She lets go.
She practices right viewing, right thinking, right speaking,
right acting, right living, right diligence, right
mindfulness and right concentration.
She passes through “(1) the student, (2) the householder,
(3) the forest dweller or hermit (the “retiree” from
business as usual), and (4) the beggar or wanderer
(the wise or fully enlightened person who is not overly
attached to anything and is detached from everything
and thus ready for death).”
She will kill the Buddha, if she meets him on the road —
figuratively speaking.
*idea from meditations on Eastern religions by Richard Rohr