Desire is the spice of life!

[helpfuldemon]

Life is desire!  Life is about wanting, and getting what you want.  If not for desire, would we have so much today?  People wanting and getting, and doing and having.  

[Cobie]

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Edited April 26, 2023 by Cobie

[old3bob]

The one truest desire, often hidden or covered by lesser desires, is for freedom/ for putting away of doubt and thus being and knowing one's true nature, that is aligned with and part of with the true nature ...until then we not are not truly satisfied.  (and can not be so if lesser desires dominate us)

Edited April 3, 2023 by old3bob

[C T]

Desire is quite natural. When hungry, food cravings take on a very personal note. It's the perversion aspect that leads to angstiness. 

 

 

[doc benway]

7 hours ago, helpfuldemon said:

Life is desire!  Life is about wanting, and getting what you want.  If not for desire, would we have so much today?  People wanting and getting, and doing and having.  

 

Desire also has negative aspects. If not for desire, would we have so much war, rape, murder, theft, and environmental destruction? As in everything there is the good and bad, balance is needed.

 

Given that this is posted in the Buddhist sub-section, it’s worth mentioning that anything we acquire through desire is conditional and therefore transient. While desire certainly adds spice to life, nothing gained through desire can provide the joy, creativity, and strength we can attain through freedom from desire. 

[helpfuldemon]

4 hours ago, steve said:

 

Desire also has negative aspects. If not for desire, would we have so much war, rape, murder, theft, and environmental destruction? As in everything there is the good and bad, balance is needed.

 

Given that this is posted in the Buddhist sub-section, it’s worth mentioning that anything we acquire through desire is conditional and therefore transient. While desire certainly adds spice to life, nothing gained through desire can provide the joy, creativity, and strength we can attain through freedom from desire. 

 

 

Everything about life is transient.  Life itself is transient.  Nothing is permanent.  While I agree that desire has a dark side, might as well get what you want while you're here.

[liminal_luke]

36 minutes ago, helpfuldemon said:

 

 might as well get what you want while you're here.

 

The get-what-you-want approach to life is pretty common in society.  You'll see this philosophy play out in playgrounds and corporate boardrooms, at Burgerking (have it your way) and during many a family meeting.  Pretty much the only remaining place where such a viewpoint isn't widely held is the Buddhist sub-section of Daobums.  So it's a little ironic that you're here, helpfuldemon.  Well, helpfuldemons have been known to stir up trouble from time to time, so I guess it comes with the territory.

[doc benway]

3 hours ago, helpfuldemon said:

Everything about life is transient.  Life itself is transient.  Nothing is permanent.  While I agree that desire has a dark side, might as well get what you want while you're here.

 

Currently what I tend to want is simply to want less, on so many levels. I find that mostly I’m Ok with what I have. This also changes for me depending on circumstances of course.

 

Individual lives are all transient but life itself has an aspect that is continuous, a quality that is unborn and undying, unbounded. Connection with that aspect of life liberates the wanting spontaneously and effortlessly because it is already complete, lacking nothing. 

[thelerner]

13 hours ago, helpfuldemon said:

Life is desire!  Life is about wanting, and getting what you want.  If not for desire, would we have so much today?  People wanting and getting, and doing and having.  

Desire has its good side, but it's not all wanting and getting.  Often its wanting and being screwed, or wanting and getting then wanting more and more.  Often we chase after shiny illusions.  

 

To me, its best to downgrade desires to preferences, ie I have a preference for this over that but I'm happy with what I get.  To enjoy life I need to savor what I have.  I can prefer more, work towards it but life is best when I'm happy with what I have and the striving is done as much for its own sake as the end goal.  

 

 

[Lairg]

I suspect that desire is not the lowest motivator nor the highest.

 

Maslow had a go at a hierarchy of needs.  No doubt it could be refined to include spiritual will and perhaps to sequence some of the components on particular levels.  For example self-esteem might be more refined than the desire for status.

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by Lairg

[wandelaar]

In the West Epicurus already solved this quandary about desire and happiness with his classification of desires: https://iep.utm.edu/epicur/#SH5c  But his teachings were not taken seriously and heavily distorted later on. As often happens with the wise men and women of old...

Edited April 4, 2023 by wandelaar

[johndoe2012]

Sometimes going after desire and putting a lot of effort into achieving the object you want vaccinates you against desire in the future. 

 

I know a lot of effort is against the design of the nervous system in the body, it is basically impossible to keep up the level all the time, fallback is relaxation and thus lack of desire. 

[Ajay0]

On 4/3/2023 at 2:54 PM, helpfuldemon said:

Life is desire!  Life is about wanting, and getting what you want.  If not for desire, would we have so much today?  People wanting and getting, and doing and having.  

 

 Desire is like fire. If it is under control, it is a useful tool. If not, you risk getting burned.

 

All crimes like theft, murder, rape, paedophilia and others can be traced to strong desires in the form of cravings or aversion that result in lust, greed, hatred and so on. 

 

All the vices are nothing but strong desires.

 

Understanding the nature of desire, one must control and channel it into constructive areas rather than destructive ones.

 

This is where control and disciplining of the mind as taught by Buddha comes into the picture.

Quote

 

Just as rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, so passion (desire) penetrates an undeveloped mind. 

 

 Just as rain does not break through a well-thatched house, so passion (desire) never penetrates a well-developed mind.(Dhammapada 1.13-14)

 

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Ajay0

[exorcist_1699]

To eat, to mate, to have a shelter are basic desires of most animals ;  and build on them , you have those other needs . To mate is the most significant  one that people always overlook , in fact, many animals such as salmon, cicada , spider ..die soon after mating in varied forms . To reproduce is  to grow , also to die  . Humans is  the same , only that the period of its  reproduction is long ,  the number of mating  numerous that the essence of it  be blurred , not to mention  the fact that many males die in the process of attaining the right to mate .

 

Such desire to mate is a  power , also some kind of energy,  which is so tenacious and deep-rooted that only  Taoism knows how to make use of it  .  Taoist transformation of jing  , instead of allowing  it  projecting outside into another female's body  , but  into the form of  qi back  to nourish one's own body is the most effective way against mortality . Buddhist  pursue of awakening from a mindless status so that  primordial  jing  inside us can echo   it   is nearly the same thing .

Edited April 20, 2023 by exorcist_1699

[Eduardo]

El 04-03-2023 a las 5:24, helpdemon dijo:

 

 

Edited February 8 by Eduardo
Delete

[helpfuldemon]

1 hour ago, Eduardo said:

Desires propel life in samsara
Desires, if they are fulfilled, give you pleasant sensations of pleasure, the pleasure of that desire can make you attached to said pleasure, which finally leads you to instability and suffering due to its loss, since in life change, temporality and instability are the norm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-----But if you are aware of the instability, and prepared to lose, you won't be harmed with suffering.  The Buddha needs to give people some credit for their tenacity!

Edited April 21, 2023 by helpfuldemon

[helpfuldemon]

1 hour ago, Eduardo said:

However, life also entails decay, illness, old age and death, situations that make many wishes remain unfulfilled.
All this is explained in the four noble truths and in the chain of causes or dependent origination.
To understand the four noble truths taught by Gautama Buddha, experience and reasoning are required, as well as a deep analysis of the causes of suffering and the way to eliminate it.
 

You can't avoid these things, so why not go about getting what you desire when you are young and healthy?  There is no way to eliminate suffering, if you come to a point of suffering, it is how it will be.  There is no mental way of eliminating it as though you go into a place of awareness to protect you from it.

[Eduardo]

2 minutes ago, helpfuldemon said:

-----But if you are aware of the instability, and prepared to lose, you won't be harmed with suffering.  The Buddha needs to give people some credit for their tenacity!

 

Humanity has built great civilizations, through strength, effort, work, conquest and the pursuit of its objectives and desires, no one denies that.
Desire, as you can see, is the great driver of changes.
Buddhism, however, seeks a way out of suffering and points out that the basic cause of human suffering is desire in the changing and unstable conditions of samsara, obviously if everyone embarks on the monastic path indicated in Theravada Buddhism, the humanity would become extinct.

[helpfuldemon]

Speaking as someone who has lost all desire, I can say that in this silence, there is suffering.  I don't like to sit in nothingness for days, and now that I witness the world as it is, I see the suffering in it, and I mourn.  I am suffering without desire.

[Nungali]

.... except for your desire to suffer .

 

Oh, I know ....   your suffering isn't your fault ,   is it ? 

[Ajay0]

On 4/19/2023 at 8:35 AM, exorcist_1699 said:

To eat, to mate, to have a shelter are basic desires of most animals ;  and build on them , you have those other needs .

 

 There is a difference between needs and greed. The greed part is where the desire or craving comes in.

 

Cravings are bound to end in suffering due to the factors of impermanence or saturation.

 

Needs are finite, but desires can be infinite. One can spend all one's life in satisfying desires for transient pleasures of an expensive nature,  and not getting peace and joy of a lasting nature that is found in the Buddha nature within, free of cost.

 

It is also the one who is anchored in the Buddha nature within, who can enjoy the pleasures of the world without being attached or slavishly addicted to them .

 

The one who is not anchored in the Buddha nature within, will be inordinately attached to sensory pleasures leading to addictions and imbalance and mental disorders, and greater tendency towards poor judgement, vice and crime.

 

Studying the background of some serial criminals , I found that it was their intense desires in the form of cravings that lead them to their transgressions of morality and virtuous conduct, even seeking pleasure in sadistic activities.

 

They had no understanding of the nature of desire or Buddha nature within, and allowed their cravings instilled by conditioning, environment and imagination to get the better of them in the search for pleasure of a transient nature which they confused with happiness. 

 

Desires of an uncontrolled nature are thus bound to affect the judgement of the individual and become destructive and harmful  in nature.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Ajay0

[old3bob]

I sometimes wonder why the historic Buddha did not say that  Buddha nature is the first Noble Truth instead of suffering...?

[Taoist Texts]

1 hour ago, old3bob said:

I sometimes wonder why the historic Buddha did not say that  Buddha nature is the first Noble Truth instead of suffering...?

because the concept of Buddha nature was first  invented in china a 1000 years after the the historic Buddha. It was not in, and is actually counter to Theravada

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha-nature

 

[old3bob]

but not counter to the recorded words of the Buddha that directly imply same

[Taoist Texts]

2 hours ago, old3bob said:

but not counter to the recorded words of the Buddha that directly imply same

if only you would follow your incisive statement by a "because..." and a quote...but you did not...(sigh)