371. Natural Desire

Our desires are numerous and their power influences us. Sometimes we want so much so badly that we feel there is no choice but to restrain our desires. And when we learn that attachment to desire can produce incredible suffering, we might even start to believe that all desire is harmful.

But desire itself is neither good nor bad. It is a natural consequence of the kind of beings we are and the way we relate to our world. Through reflective consciousness, we develop a sense of causality, time, and distinction between objects. We form beliefs about the world’s present state through our experience of it, and we form desires about its future state. While we sometimes directly choose what we desire, this process more often happens automatically.

Desires are a way of conceptually realizing our needs. We perceive a need that must be met, and we find a way of meeting it through a particular goal. An intentional desire is nothing other than a conceptual pathway built out of logic and reason that leads to the completion of our goal. That we can see this causal linkage so clearly and certainly is what makes it so easy for us to become attached to a desire.

We desperately want to bring about the causes that will produce the effect of satisfying our desire. We want this because the need that gave rise to the desire is real and pressing. But as our attention narrows to focus on the desire’s goal, we become attached. The fact that the desire was only a means to meet the need gets lost, and our attachment causes us to concentrate our actions on satisfying the desire. The result is that we end up suffering as our other needs are ignored and go unmet.

It is always attachment that is the problem and not desire itself. As long as we have needs, we will reflect on them and form desires as particular solutions to the challenges they present. By loosening ourselves from attachment, we become capable of seeing need even when desire is present and strong. We can then allow our desires to arise and depart without being overly influenced by them. With our attention free and open, we can see need clearly and we are then able to discover the best means of meeting it.