Wanting keeps me from the awareness

1 ill read v have it.

I already am it.
THERE’S NOT ANYTHING LEGITIMATE EVER
GOING ON INSIDE OF ME

Friend: Are we right in understanding, Katie, that no desires

arise in you?
P*

Katie: There’s not anything legitimate ever going on inside of

me. You're all that's left of it. And 1 know that you don't
j

believe vour own desires either.

Friend: I don’t believe mv own desires? Let’s say that a com
r* J

chip is in front of me. I can taste the salt and T feel like I'd be
happier if I pm that corn chip in my mouth than if I just left it
there. I can feel the saliva,,.
Katie: That’s the power of the story of a past, Tt's the story of a
corn chip that doesn't even exist.
Friend: 1 t’s in front of m e , . ,
Katie: But it's a corn chip, sweetheart, is it true? Can you really
know that?
j

Friend: No, 1 can’t know it’s a corn chip.

Katie: So you're telling the story that it’s real, and your tongue
does all that stuff , and all the desire starts, and none of it's real.
I mean you could reach down and fi nd that it’s plastic! That’s a
closer metaphor. But even when you eat it and you investigate,
it can’t be real. Because every tiling is a story. It can’t ever be
legitimate.
Friend: So, why do T eat?
Katie: Because you do.