Your Desires, My Desires

What are desires?  Where do I start?  They come in all forms, things that we want, things we think we must have at all cost.  It could be a material thing -- a big shiny SUV, to non tangible things -- everlasting happiness. And there are so many things in-between, but you get the gist. No man has never had desires, this comes natural to us.




Where are desires coming from? Well the body and mind has them, don't they? The desires of the body are easily met - hunger - you eat, rest - you sleep, these things get satisfied quickly very black and white, but they do not cease, it's a process we go through everyday.  The desires of the mind are a bit more complex, the mind houses the concepts of lack and abundance.  The mind also has different reasons to covet them, it could be envy, greed, betterment, triumph so on and so forth.


When did we have desires?  This is a bit hard to answer, we've had desires since the body was born, doesn't a child cry when he/she is hungry?  Have you tried extending a finger towards an almost sleeping child?  The child instantly grabs the finger, wanting comfort in that closeness (and no I do not advocate touching a child you not know).  So the answer would be since birth.  As we grow older, our desires change.  These desires that are acquired come from our experiences, meaning - we see a classmate in school perhaps, classmate has a cool phone -- you start thinking - hey! i want that too.


But why? Why do we have desires? Well on the part of the body -- the desires are born out of need.   Remember that the body is very straight forward with what it needs to be done.  With the mind, it's a feeling of lack, because we think that something is missing, thoughts like - if only I had this much money, things will be perfect; if I have this job I would be set for life; if I have a perfect nose then I would be the most beautiful; if I told such and such person how they should live life, then we would all be happy.  The thoughts to justify desires are numerous, our mind will never run out of reasons. But as stated above -  we have this notion that we are incomplete.


We start thinking that when we achieve these desires, that we would be happy.  But are we?  Maybe for a bit, but sadly it doesn't last.  We run after these desires, we pursue them and when we satisfy one, guess what?  Another one comes up, we are never satisfied.  We're also so caught up with making it last forever, nothing lasts forever, that shiny SUV you bought is getting broken everyday, this is just the truth.  Then we become so disappointed when the happiness doesn't last, sometimes even angry -- why did it not turn out the way that I wanted?

"So long as there is desire or want, it is a sure sign that there is imperfection. A perfect, free being cannot have any desire. "    

Vivekananda

We think this way because we do not know what or who we are, we're latched on to the wrong thing, we think that we are the seen representations of us.   We are so lost in our beliefs that we have forgotten our essence.  The truth of the matter is -- we are already complete. We the Self, need nothing, it does not need to run after things, as they come more often than a scheduled city bus.  All that we desire are objects, material things and non material things.  These desires that we harbor is because of our looking for something to complete us, thinking that it will be given by objects, when in truth they wont.  So why do we think that we are incomplete?  We think that we are because we have forgotten who we are, once we identify with the mind - body, then we will go down this path of want.  But when we truly know who and what we are, when the cloud of ignorance vanishes, we realize that fulfilling desires are not the end all and be all of things.  We learn to fulfill the desires that we need to be fulfilled asap such as eating, relieving and rest, emergencies,, and those that need not be.  We start thinking logically and critically, separating wants from needs and seeing how silly we were running around like headless chickens.  When we start to identify with who we really are, we let go of things more easily, knowing that objects are not important and that there are actually others on their way for us to experience next.  We want desires met so we will be happy -- it's this wanting to be happy that we extend, but guess what?  Happiness is already our natural state, we just forgot.

The bottom line is -- fulfillment of desires does not bring lasting happiness, desires never stop.

Objects come and go -- this is what experience is.  But the Self does what it has always done, and that is to experience everything, to witness.  And the Self is already perfect as it is, not wanting anything and is blissful.

Note:
Painting is by Sean Norvet.