A hungry dog wandered for hours searching for something to satisfy itself.
At last, it found an old dry bone lying in the dirt.
The dog immediately seized it and began chewing with great excitement.
But the bone was old and empty.
There was nothing within it.
Still, the dog gnawed harder and harder.
As it bit down repeatedly, its own gums began to tear and bleed. Soon the dog tasted blood upon the bone.
Excited by the taste, it became convinced the bone itself was giving nourishment.
The more blood it tasted, the more fiercely it chewed.
“This bone is wonderful,” the dog thought.
“It is giving me life.”
All the while, the taste it loved was coming only from itself.
Reflection
So too with the mind.
It believes happiness comes from objects:
possessions,
relationships,
achievement,
pleasure,
recognition.
And for a moment, after obtaining them, happiness seems to appear.
But the object itself did not contain peace.
Rather, when desire temporarily ends, the mind briefly becomes quiet enough for the happiness already within to shine through.
The dog believed the blood came from the bone.
Likewise, the mind believes happiness comes from the world.
Yet what it seeks has always arisen from within itself.
The object did not create the happiness.
It merely uncovered what had always been there.