“Be mindful of your desires and break free from the endless chase of it.”
Desire is an acquisitive term that scholars, sages, and philosophers have given various definitions. The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a strong wish to have or do something”. You wish for something that is your desire. There is no difference in the worldly desire or desire for an object. Desire is desire! Either you desire to be happy or to go away from suffering; you choose only desire. You wish something would happen that is not the same as my current situation; want it; that’s desire. You hope for a better future compared to the present. You want my present to be preferable to my previous, i.e. your past — that is desire.
Desire is not a fleeting emotion but a perpetual cycle of yearning for a future that is not. It’s a constant longing for what is not in the present moment, a continuous escape from the reality of life. You wish for something in one moment, and in the next, you want for something else. This perpetual cycle of desire takes you further away from the present moment, from the reality of life.
So, what precisely is desire? It is a practice against the freedom of life. You are preparing yourself to go against freedom and wish not to let your life be free from thinking of desire. You want to desire, dreaming of it every moment. Once that moment is gone, you wish for another moment, another wish, and the cycle continues. That takes you away from freedom. You say I will be happy and free from suffering since I fulfil this desire. In this wish for a river, you set the bet to lose the ocean and the freedom.
Your dreams are getting longer and wider with your wishful thinking, and your dreams are getting fatter with every inch of wanting. It never occurs or reaches a condition in any moment of your life that you do not wish for something, like totally receiving a no-desire state. The Bible says: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and refuse to let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. This quote from the Bible illustrates the idea that desire can lead to slavery, where our wants and wishes constantly drive us. The desire led us to be in the chains of slavery. It will not leave any room for unyoking.
Even if you think, Well, I am desiring anyway, why not desire for freedom? Wishing for freedom is also a form of desire. There is no difference. You cannot achieve freedom from desire, whether you desire it or try to escape it. Both paths lead to more desire. So, what can one do to reach a state of no desire? No desire is not about acquiring some power so that you don’t desire anything in your life at any given time. That’s not no-desire. In a philosophical sense, no desire is a state where your desires do not drive you but are accessible from the constant yearning for something more. Because anything you desire in this world is worth desiring, you cannot change that, no matter how much effort you put into it.
You can only move to no desire if you have received some gain or motive. So reaching for no desire means finding the meaning of eternal joy in your life. In this context, eternal joy is not a state of constant happiness but a state of contentment and peace that is not dependent on external circumstances. It is a matter of deep understanding of the nature of desire. Whatever you desire leads you to misery. You may think I knew it couldn’t lead me to my misery, but if you did know, you would never think of going on that path of wishful thinking or wanting something, so if you understand that every desire leads you to misery. Going with desire and full alertness of those desires, and you will reach the abyss.
Watchful of every desire, and you will find that irrespective of desire, it will arrive at the door of wretchedness. Once you understand the process, you move slowly with desire and will find it every time you reach the same door. Every path you choose with desire leads to the same gateway. The time you realise that moment leads to desireless ness — the adobe of no desire. However, you can not practice the no-desire; you can only be mindful of it. It would be best if you only were vigilant of the desire’s harbour — the harbour of suffering. When this becomes the realisation to you, not just a belief or mere understanding, but a fact — desire vanishes. When maturity comes, the flower will flourish in the mud, and you realise that the destiny of desire is always a misery, and that’s when desire disappears for good.