Desire is a source of suffering

There is a nice ancient expression: DESIRE IS A SOURCE OF SUFFERING. 

I want to be healthy.
I want my own apartment (house).
I want to help people.
I want to become good.
I want world peace.
I want to be spiritual.
I want to merge with God!
and so on, and so forth. 

Do these desires sound familiar? They surely do. 
And, remarkably enough, these are very nice desires… 

Hum! I sat for a while, looked – nothing changed owing to such desires. I was sitting at the desk just like I had been sitting before, and thoughts crowded in my head just like before, i.e. nothing changed. I grasped I needed to do something differently and took a wise book. I read several pages about how people achieved enlightenment. Everything’s written correctly and sincerely. My desire to enter the spiritual world further increased. I stood up, went to the kitchen, made some tea, returned to the living room and opened the book again. I was sipping tea, reading and desiring – desiring to enter the spiritual world. Such desire seemed appropriate, but for some reason I felt uneasy inside; thoughts in my head were positive, but there was no inner lightness or joy.

So, what’s wrong? Where’s a golden key to implementation of desires? 

Everything has turned out to be as simple as always. When you just want something, but do nothing to achieve it, you are not approaching your goal. Let’s take a simple example. When instead of just wanting to relax you use accurate inner commands to manage your body and start actually relaxing your stomach, shoulders, facial muscles, arms, legs, etc., you get a marvellous effect: relaxation becomes your reality at that very moment. In the process of relaxation chaotic thinking abates and silence ensues in your head. An inner feeling of tranquillity, a feeling of boundlessness and love arises and grows from within. At such moment you don’t get plunged in the past or attracted to the future – you have only the here and now point. 

Hence, it turns out no matter how passionately you want to achieve something such wanting will only hamper implementation of your desire. 

In his lecture about the noble truths Dalai Lama said the following:

The three major disturbing passions are gloom, desire and hatred.

In the end, if you have a desire to merge with God, remove the desire and simply go for it!

Prepared by Alex Yermak (Ukraine)