I recently heard a talk by the Dalai Lama and he addressed a person’s question about desire.  The practitioner was confused by the seemingly paradoxical Buddhist teaching that desire, craving and attachment will cause suffering, but that it takes desire to be disciplined in one’s practice.  The answer the Dalai Lama gave was simple, that certain desires are positive and some are negative.

I would like to expand on this.  Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudez says that what we desire most, that we will become. (This is an aspect of Karma)

To transform our habits, our desire has to be razor sharp and white hot to sear through the veil of ignorance and fear that keeps us making decisions that hinder our joy and destroy our habitat.

Desire can be placed into two categories:  Desire driven by compulsion (craving / attachment) and desire driven by choice (will).

We can only be truly free when our desires are by choice rather than by habit.  When we apply mindfulness to the expression of our will, our desire is transformed into a powerful tool for liberation and the creation of a world that celebrates joy rather than destruction, love rather than fear.

Peace and love,

Joshua Graner

Joshua@all1mind.org