What is the True purpose of Desire?
Should we be Open to Desire?
Or, should we Conquor Desire?
"Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop."
(Means: Chase away the natural, and it comes back at a gallop.)
As Desire is Natural, should we be chasing it away? Or, should we awaken to it's true potential?
Thoughts, Opinions, Ideas...?
Love & Peace
2007-06-22 07:28:15 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Allow me to answer this very good question if I may from a Buddhist perspective. It has prompted my response because the term "Desire" to Buddhists is the Pali word Tanha which means craving and is related to the Buddhist terrm "Grasping" in Pali Upadana.
Many folks consider Buddhism as a philosophy of non attachment and they are quite right. But this term non attachment has a specific meaning and is very often misinterpreted to mean non attachment to everything and has become a source of great misinformation and misinterpretation.
Non attachment to Buddhists is Not seeing that everything has to be avoided or ignored or as empty or lacking in truth or meaning because it is not wholesome or some other such idea that I've seen bandied about as truly Buddhist...No this is Not what it is about at all. These ideas are very mischievous and false and completely "Wrong View"...let me explain what Non Attachment really means to a Buddhist...
Desire is not the enemy to be conquored...it is self serving desires...selfishness...which is to be conquored...and it is accomplished by Not Grasping what is Craved when the Craving is self serving or selfish...let me explain by example...
Tanha is the "craving" for a cup of coffee, Upadana is "Grasping" or "picking it up". It is the "picking it up" the Upadana that we must conquor.... only an example...
It has become common to think that All Upadana is UnBuddhist, that Buddhists become Unattached to all experience and it has even been suggested by a mischeivous few that Buddhists become attached to the idea of Non Attachment (rolls eyes skywards)....Not so....Not all Upadana is UnBuddhist......
The Lord Buddha only specified 4 groups of Upadana to be avoided..they are..
1..Taking up the 5 senses...
2.. Taking up Wrong Views..
3.. Taking up the idea that Liberation may be attained by Initiations and Rites..
4.. Taking up the idea of a Self..
Upadana is "taking up", so there is great merit in the Upadana of the Practise of Compassion for this releases Self Centeredness. The Upadana of Meditation Practise for this releases much suffering related to Wrong Thoughts where we harbour suffering from our past and worry (suffering) for our future and much other suffering. The Upadana of the achievement of Jhana (various levels of deep meditation practise) letting go of the 5 senses to gain access to the Mind. The Upadana of Nibbana, the letting go once and for all of all hatred, greed and delusion which are the seeds of Rebirth.
Self serving desires are difficult to release. They always accompany the arising of "Self" in the consciousness and it is the "Self" which should be discarded if we are to become "self less" as it were. To accomplish this we must not grasp these selfish feelings. If they are selfish, they will bring only temporary happiness, often at the expense of someone elses happiness. After the feelings diminish, there is always a renewal of the same desire to feel those feelings again. This causes suffering, the suffering of unfulfilled Tanha.
Selfless desires on the other hand are not derived from the "Self", but from the real you and should be developed. Buddhists use the Eightfold Noble Path to develop the 8 charcteristics therein to develop the Mind and release the "Self". There will never be a feeling of "I need to be selfless" because there will never arise the term
"I" in the Consciousness rather there develops a need, if you will, to exhibit Compassion because it is the Right Action because of the development of Right View and Right Effort, via Wisdom and Concentration.
A Buddhist perpsective on "desire"...
Peace from a Buddhist....
2007-06-23 10:18:08 · answer #1 · answered by Gaz 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
A desire is the tool to fulfill the lust for life .The basic desire of every being is '' I have to become many'' so this basic desire planted in us by mother nature does all the work .The same desire takes the form of lust, anger, greed and etc. This desire when it is directed outwards creates all the misery , every desire leads to misery .When the same desire is projected inwards towards the source , the form of the desire changes it becomes ''I have to be one'' and that is the true desire of all the beings to melt with the ultimate to become one with the source.So no need to conquer just turn it inwards towards the source.
2007-06-26 10:29:23 · answer #2 · answered by shivamat bhairav 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Desire has no purpose, but it has a function. Experience (life) requires the illusion of multiplicity. Multiplicity requires the splitting of Wholeness. This separation results in the sense of lack. Lack brings about desire. Desire brings about the movement toward it's fulfillment. This movement is evolution, and since the only ultimate fulfillment is Wholeness, evolution is destined to return to Wholeness, and the circle is complete.
Desire is, therefore, both the cause of suffering, and the means by which it is overcome in the Realization of the Wholeness of Self.
2007-06-22 15:31:38 · answer #3 · answered by philmeta11 3 · 5⤊ 0⤋
It seems that desire is part of the 'human scene' and always will be.
Desire has been put in a bad light by many guru/teacher types. Seekers have added this to their super ego 'stuff' and feel guilty for desiring the simplest thing.
Many religious/spiritual teachings frown on the enjoyment of life and childlike spontaneity. There's too much desire in being spontaneous!
To rid oneself of all these erroneous teachings and just be with the immediacy of awareness is where the 'miracle' unfolds.
The machinations of the mind will always be with us too, but we don't have to buy into any of it! The relationship we have with our thoughts keep us on 'the wheel' of suffering.
The 'desire thought' has kept us turning for far too long. ;)
2007-06-22 16:19:54 · answer #4 · answered by Eve 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
This käma, or desire, cannot be annihilated. There are some philosophers who say that if one gives up his desires, he again becomes liberated. But it is not at all possible to give up desire, for desire is a symptom of the living entity. If there were no desire, then the living entity would be a dead stone. Srila Narottama däsa Thäkura(an Indian saint), therefore, advises that one turn his desire towards serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Then desire becomes purified. And when one's desires are purified, one becomes liberated from all material contamination.
For the living entity who desires to return to Godhead, material desires are impediments.
2007-06-24 20:20:52 · answer #5 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
My Buddhist friend told me that desire is the root of all disappointments. That is so true too.
Without desire we would never have feelings of sadness for what we do not have, be it material or emotional.
Now, if only I could get that through my thick head and actually practice that philosophy in life.
2007-06-22 14:33:48 · answer #6 · answered by Gorgeoustxwoman2013 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Desire never be satisfied with consumption.
As the ingestion increases thirst swells more and more.
As if fire flames like inferno when the oil has been poured.
Desires are there to protect and to procreate.
No one can Conquer the desires with out the blessing from Desire itself.
Only we can surrender the Desire and pray;
"OH MIGHTY DESIRE
BLESS ME BY THE POWER.......
THE POWER TO CONQUER YOU"
2007-06-26 00:55:08 · answer #7 · answered by Shripathi Krishna Acharya 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
We desire because we believe in lack (so deeply, that we accept the lack as natural, and the desire as unnatural). But true desire, as in the desire of God to create, this is a joyous thing, based on the perfect knowledge that desire has its base in endless abundance. In our terms, desire is indeed natural, and as such, should not be stifled, for denial of the nature of our creaturehood, or selfhood, causes blockage of (our reception of) our native flow of energy, thus of expression and growth (in our terms). We are "here" to learn to use energy--what it is for, and what its nature means to us; we are here to learn who/what we really are.
2007-06-23 09:13:32 · answer #8 · answered by Sky in the Grass 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
desire word exist in both spiritual as well as material world. so one should have desire to achieve the love of the Lord. it depends upon one's choice that he accomplish this desire by conquering the material desire or by suppressing the material desire. these are two ways but the of conquering the material desire is better as said in Srimad Bhagwad Geeta
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna , Krishna Krishna , Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama , Rama Rama Hare Hare
2007-06-23 11:46:48 · answer #9 · answered by KrishanRam(Jitendra k) 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
well you can desire many things. Sex, love, marriage, kids, chocolate, new clothes...etc etc. It's just another word for want, really. the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state. feel or have a desire for; want strongly; "I want to go home now"; "I want my own room". It's human nature, it can't be ignored.
2007-06-22 14:35:43 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋