244. The Root Of Oppression

When I’m attached to my desires, I produce suffering for myself and others. Suffering arises because my attention and actions are fully directed towards the fulfillment of my desires. In such a state, I’m unable to see what I or others need and I cannot do anything to meet those needs.

The suffering that arises from my unmet needs can cause me to redouble my efforts to get what I want, out of the mistaken idea that I can escape from suffering by fulfilling my desires. Not only do I deprive myself and others of the care and attention they need, I also compete with them out of the belief that I must in order to stop suffering. I might even directly harm other people by lying to them or manipulating them to get what I want.

These lies and manipulations are not always short or simple. They can be systematized into rules and structures that give me and others like me advantages over other groups, helping us fulfill our desires more easily. Unquenchable desire transforms into a thirst for power, and power constructs harmful hierarchies of dominance and oppression.

With some awareness, I can recognize that a power structure that seemingly benefits me is harmful overall and become motivated to dismantle it. By doing so, I help to eliminate an oppressive hierarchy, allowing for equality to be restored along this axis.

But even if I were capable of removing all of the existing power structures, I would not have eliminated the root of oppression. For this is the same as the root of suffering, the root of all unnecessary pain. It is attachment itself that causes oppression, which means that new dimensions of oppression will keep popping up like weeds in fertile soil until this root is removed.

I must learn to see that my desires are not me. I cannot allow myself to be shackled to them as this is how the cycle of suffering both begins and continues without end. I must help others discover how these same mechanisms also operate in them. It is only through greater awareness, both in myself and others, that the root of oppression can finally be seen and eliminated.