Weakening desires

[Firedragon]

The Tao Te Ching says that we should be without desires to know the essence, and that the holy person weakens the desires. What methods do Taoists use to weaken the desires?

[blackstar212]

To desire to weaken ones desires hmmmmmmmmmmm?

 

Be content in all things and have gratitude.

[Firedragon]

As the idea is repeated in the TTC, I thought that it is important and that there is a practice.

Also, how can I be content in all things? And how I can have gratitude if I am not content? I guess that if I weaken the desires, I can be content, and if I am content I can have gratitude.

[Marblehead]

What's that word?  Balance?

 

What's that other word?  Excess?

[Stosh]

Get married?

[Gerard]

Methods:

 

1. Interact with the natural environment as often and as long as you possibly can.

2. Return to the pre-heaven state. The 8 Mother Palms practice of Baguazhang will do that.

3. Purify your Heart

4. Focus on the above for the remaining of your life.

 

No desire here:

 

 

I want to stay in that cave for an entire year to further purify the mind and appreciate the true and very important value of loneliness.

 

Plenty of that there:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[joeblast]

Get married?

If it aint to the right person its going to cause far more problems than it'll solve

[thelerner]

Bit of a mental trick, but downgrades desires to preferences ie don't get into the mental state I want Chocolate Pecan or I'll be unhappy.  Rather, you prefer chocolate pecan but other flavors are fine too, even going without is not so bad.  It's the clinging that creates most of our unhappiness. 

 

It's not all good, but most of it is, we can work on the bad and it will surely pass. 

[Mudfoot]

The dissolving method can be used for that purpose.

Mindfulness practices are taught to persons with addiction to help them with this.

[joeblast]

breaking it down to the neurological....

 

the brain builds its neural networks based on habit and experience...

 

to truly transform a habit is also to transform the neural network, to an extent

 

giving energy - positively or negatively, to a pattern-network - reinforces that network connection and serves to upgrade the bandwidth of said network

 

ergo the way to weaken a desire, end a habit, is the same -  "dig a new channel for the water to flow"

 

take the habit energy of the past habit and put it towards a new (hopefully more constructive ) habit  

 

feeding impulses lends energy to desires - the impulse is the momentary spike of signal whereas the desire is the pattern of habit-energy revealing itself via the momentary impulses.  the momentary impulses of neurological habit are shown to really only last maybe 45 seconds, absent furtherance. 

 

the gongfu of taming harnessing and redirecting the impulse-spikes leads to the transformation of the habit

 

that's the same reason why in meditation we return, return, return to the breath ( and focused awareness and time spent building the gongfu of breathing  does literally program the process of that exercised awareness into the "default instruction set" of the medulla for subconscious breathing

 

in this same way, reinforcing good habits and denying energy to bad habits allows one to transform any habit, so long as sincere effort is put forth into said transformation.

 

[dawei]

Attention and focus are powerful things in energy and in life.

 

The first step may be to check your awareness of the situation:

 

1. Make a list of what you find your attention and focus tend to be one.

 

2. Then make a list of what you think you really want your attention and focus to be one.

 

3. Set out to keep your attention and focus on what is most important... and that could include anything from physical stuff to relationships to spiritual stuff.   It's your call.

 

I recall an ancient text saying when in doubt, focus on the lower dan tian...  that's it.

 

4. Repeat in 4 weeks and see what changed

[RiverSnake]

Self-Knowledge will cause your desires to weaken. 

Edited September 16, 2016 by OldChi

[Vajra Fist]

Ditto this ^. Whenever you get angry or upset, step back from the situation and study your thoughts and emotions.

[dwai]

Self-Knowledge will cause your desires to weaken.

Self-knowledge does intensely dissolve desire. More apparent the Self becomes, the more meaningless desires become.

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

Just a thought:

when we interrogate the classics, we should try to be very exact about what they say. As far as I know, it does not say to "weaken desires" in the Dao De Jing, but it does say not to desire.  chapter three says  弱其志 ruo qi zhi, which means "weaken the will."  志 zhi means will, or the basic urge to survive.  Weakening the will (or we could also say softening the will) may just be a result of quieting the mind and calming the body.   If we follow the formula of that chapter which is

虛其心，

empty the heart/mind

實其腹，

fill the belly

弱其志，

soften the will

強其骨。

strengthen the bones,

常使民無知無欲。

make the people long without knowledge, without desire,

使夫¹知者不敢為也。

he who knows this has no brave motive,

為無為，則無不治。

acting without action, there is nothing he doesn't control,

 

 

so at least in  my own understanding, when we become quiet, take care of the things we need, and don't try to grasp things that are outside of our direct basic needs, then we naturally desire less, and don't create anything in other people to desire from us.   So just remaining quiet, simple, calm, and not selfishly motivated is already a very good way to reduce desire

Remember that desire is not only sexual desire, it is every kind of social and physical desire, from wanting material wealth, status, to control other people, sexual desire, and any kind of desire to gain needless material benefit for our bodies.    Desire is a natural poison of the mind and it is not a one day process to break its bonds.  We have to practice selflessly for a long time and gradually break the shell, so just the most basic things like remaining calm and quiet is already a very good "seed" to begin cultivating this approach.

Now that i have reminded myself of that, I think its time to talk a stroll around the greener parts of the city and focus on nothing specific

[Gerard]

Weaken your desires with Traditional Chinese music:

 

The Butterfly Lovers"-梁祝
 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

[silent thunder]

The main action of my practice of late, is letting go.  Of all of it. 

 

Drop it.  It is mind stuff and not worth it.  Let it go and just be.

 

Let it go and be present.  Unfiltered and unapologetic. 

Natural.

 

All the rest, always seems to be an additional, unnecessary layer, based in and sponsored by perception based mind stuff that gets in the way of presence and being and 'real'.

 

I can't say I've lost my desires... but I have lost my desire to punish people when I've been wronged.

[sagebrush]

I cannot make changes to yesterday(insert serenity prayer)

my habitual pattern is not necessarily dread because it is Monday-

but that it is time to go back to work already.

I have an easier week on the menu-even though it is not clearly defined.

What I am in the midst of is understanding me first....

not stretching too far

I do not have a lot of philosophy or religion or method

maybe patterns and addiction.

I do like to communicate at some point to challenge myself to interact/share

but I do not want to do it in a way that provokes huge emotional chunks to process..

but then again that has been my life....

I have gratitude and how can that not be known......

if the real end game is absolutely nothing

then it seems from a pragmatic point I just disengage.

I did not need to process much more-

I have hesitation with any new practice, other than walking and I do not have to share here.

I take restorative yoga and have endless woods and ponds to explore and chores.

If I see things of interest...or have inspiration....

and it seems fun then I cultivate that...whatever that looks like

for now it is getting a grip on the health or lack thereof.

 

I did not need and do not need to bring my daily walk here...

regardless of cute critters and pretty nature objects or my career manifesting in storytalk.

 

we shall see

Edited September 19, 2016 by sagebrush

[Rocky Lionmouth]

Thanks Sillybear for the translation!

 

 

Often when i experience desire i later think i should have broken it down into components while it happened.

Those times i do manage to grasp that bird in mid-air all i need is to try to see it from outside or at least acknowledge that my desire is unbalanced because of the perspective i percieve from isnt balanced, and so it becomes clearer.

 

Then, understanding what causes desire becomes easier and when you know a little more of what drives your desires its easier to just let them pass. The more you that, the less they'll bother you. Because thats the issue right? At first we're unaware desire controls us, then we realize it and desire starts to bother but it's still kinda abstract. I'm obviously a fan of the "put it under the microscope" method, but it helps me avoid getting stuck or obsessed. Once it's taken apart and scrutinized it's easier to leave it behind.

 

This, of course, ties in to ones daily state of being. If you're in a poor way then vulnerability is higher. Which tells you you can only do as good as you manage to pull something off each individual time you do it, just relax and do it again.

[dawei]

It is not so much negation as it is just allowing everything to arise and go without attachment to their coming and going.

 

I can admire a well groomed garden as much as a weed filled one.  In fact, the well tended one makes me think of the gardener while the non-tended one makes me think of the garden..  They are just two Ways of tending and non-tending.   If you view one as 'beautiful' then the other becomes 'ugly'.   

[Orion]

Methods:

 

1. Interact with the natural environment as often and as long as you possibly can.

2. Return to the pre-heaven state. The 8 Mother Palms practice of Baguazhang will do that.

3. Purify your Heart

4. Focus on the above for the remaining of your life.

 

No desire here:

 

 

I want to stay in that cave for an entire year to further purify the mind and appreciate the true and very important value of loneliness.

 

Plenty of that there:

 

 

 

I get what you're saying but those images setup a duality of conditions. Arguably someone living in the latter location has sufficient temptation to develop a very thorough understanding of desire. I've known people who have cracked from the chaos of civilization, only to awaken due to its pressures.

 

I met a Buddhist nun who spent 7 years in a cave like environment. When she returned to human society she became angry within the first 24 hours.

 

Just giving examples to demonstrate that the best path is not always what we think it should look like. Awakening and enlightenment are spontaneous after all.