In honor of the holiday shopping season, this week's feature story is about desire. That's the thing that, we're told, leads us into suffering.
The second of the four Bodhisattva Vows is, "desires are inexhaustible; I vow to end them." But if desires are inexhaustible, how do you end them? Is it even possible?
Theravada monk and scholar Thanissaro Bhikkhu wrote,
"All phenomena, the Buddha once said, are rooted in desire. Everything we think, say, or do -- every experience -- comes from desire. Even we come from desire. We were reborn into this life because of our desire to be. Consciously or not, our desires keep redefining our sense of who we are. Desire is how we take our place in the causal matrix of space and time."
If desire is the root of our existence, how can "we" rid ourselves of desire? Only in Nirvana, the Bukkhu said, is there neither phenomena nor desire.
That being the case, it seems to me that approaching the problem of desire as something "I" must purge from my "self" is going about practice the wrong way. Anything you do that reinforces the illusion of a permanent self is going about practice the wrong way.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu says the path to Nirvana is rooted in skillful desire. Skillful desire fuels Right Effort. Unskillful desire comes from a sense of lack of limitation, causing us to grasp for things we think will make is more complete.
Zen teacher Sojun Mel Weitsman has said something very similar. Desire is neither good or bad, but it must be directed. "If we want to deal with desire, direct it toward practice. That way you don't hurt anyone, and you don't hurt yourself, and you motivate yourself in the right direction, and desire, fulfilling its proper function, becomes a blessing," he said.
On the other hand, when desire is misdirected, it becomes destructive. Misdirected desire becomes grasping, and then we let desire jerk us around, pursuing this thing and that thing in the mistaken notion that we need something outside ourselves to make us happy.
Even the Bodhisattva Vows are an expression of desire, if you think about it. I desire to end desire. I think there's a koan in there somewhere.
In my opinion, there is a fine line between desire and greed. Without the desire to better ourselves (spiritually and physically), we would still be living in the stone age and in ignorance. Without the desire to survive, we would be all already be dead.
It is desire that propel us to move forward. Greed is not desire misdirected. Greed is insatiable desire. Greed is wanting something outside of your capabilities. Greed is wanting a free lunch.
There is nothing wrong with wanting a better life (spiritually and physically). After all, don’t we all learn Buddhism in order to better ourselves?
We all sow our own sweet and bitter fruits that we must consume. All we have to do is to honestly earn our own better future. One plant of virtue at a time, and when you have a forest of virtues, you will be able to eat the fruits of your own efforts at ease and without worry about been greedy.
But if you think you are greedy, why don’t you ask yourself ‘Why?’ No one else would know you better than yourself. All you have to do is to be willing to face your own darkness.
Thanks Yuan.
As I understand it, Buddhism is the rare religion that’s not primarily about making a paradise on Earth or striving for one in “heaven”. It’s technically also not about conventionally “bettering ourselves” as such, as there is no “self” to better.
All effort is ultimately towards dispelling the illusion of separation, of duality, of “me” and “other than me”. I use terms like “I”, “me” and “ourselves” etc. to describe this, but I’m not sure it’s avoidable.
It just so happens that compassion is one of the greatest tools we have to motivate us. Since we are all one, helping others skillfully helps move the cause forward.
So long as there is desire, even the best heaven we can imagine will become insufficient after a period of time, but here’s the interesting part, the desire that saves us from the distractions of heaven is the desire for nirvana, i.e., the end of all desire.
It can sound somewhat cold and calculating, I suppose, but again, this is part of my current perception of Buddhism, grains or bushels of salt must be applied. My way of understanding may not be helpful.
Heh, I’ll add, it may not even be helpful to me
If you think you are not greedy you are kidding yourself.
Sugar coat it by saying you direct it towards practice if you like but it is not the content of the object of desire but the content of the emotion of desire itself.
Better to be an honest junkie that a dishonest practitioner.
yuan,
very good dharma nugget, thank you.
many of us especially those new to buddhism think that the third noble truth literally means to end desire when we must realize the very thing that we intend to do so is the very thing we try to eradicate in the first place. m’am barbara’s article has given me a new insight on how to deal with desire – right direction.
@tfitz – True. But that doesn’t absolve you from trying to do something about being a junkie.