When we are born, the first pure desire we have is the desire to eat. The infant does not think about food, feels hungry and wants to eat. He then smells the mother’s milk on her breast and moves towards the food source. Desire preceded thought.
Over time, a bottle replaces the breast and the child then thinks about food when he sees the bottle (sight-to-bottle sensory perception). Desire preceded thought, but then thought preceded desire.
This is the identification process. We identify an object, the bottle in this example, with the pleasure of food. When we see the bottle, it reminds us of the pleasure of eating and then we get hungry and desire is born.
Parents often tell young children that they like something, perhaps a certain item of clothing or food. “You love this food,” says the father. “Yeah?” says the child. “If you can.” “Okay, give me more.”
And so it goes, a habit or pattern develops, thought precedes desire.
Eventually, the thought has become so ingrained in our adult minds that we no longer know if we wish or just think we wish. Every desire begins with the thought when we see an advertisement or something that another person has.
You may have noticed that you didn’t want a coffee until you saw the Starbucks. Then she “realized” that he would like a cup of coffee. This is, of course, an example that she can apply to the dozens of wishes she has every day.
This identification rules your life. You identify an item through one of your five senses and then it registers in your brain with a memory of what that thing does or how you feel about it, and AFTER that process, a desire is created. So you THINK you want, but in fact your desire is not pure, it is created by thought and not by nature.
Most desires are not pure or natural, they are created and contaminated by thought. That is why you get so confused about why you want something that is not good for you or that you do not need.
You certainly have some pure desires. There are times when you are hungry and that is pure desire. The goal of this article is to realize how much of what you think are wants are actually not things you need or really want, even though you think they are.
The reason this is so important to discover and correct is that desire is the cause of suffering. When you want something you can’t have, you suffer, at least up to a point. Also, he may go out of his way to make you suffer in pursuit of your desires.
If you can learn the difference between a real desire and a desire based on thought, you can reduce the number of things you want and thus totally change your life.
Let’s list some of the effects of thought-based wishes.
* If you want many things, you will have to work harder to earn money to get them, and when you spend your money to get them, they stay on the shelf or do not give you real satisfaction, so your money is wasted.
* With your money wasted, you have wasted the time to earn that money, so the time was wasted.
* So you have less money to do the things you really like.
* You have less money to invest or save for retirement.
* So you have to work harder and longer instead of enjoying your life more.
* You will buy a lot of things you don’t need and have a closet or garage full of things you used once and now just store. This takes up space and is a weight in your life, having to move it, store it and secure it.
* You can eat, drink or smoke things that are not good for your health. This wastes money, which is also time, and is self-destructive.
* Many desires will remain unfulfilled, which will cause you suffering.
* Pursuing desires that are not pure desires takes time and effort to acquire the things you really want, leaving you unsatisfied in life.
* Pursuing desires based on thoughts will cause conflict in relationships.
* Pursuing desires based on thoughts causes internal conflicts when you want something that you know you don’t really want, but you just want it and don’t know why. Eventually enough internal conflicts will destroy self-confidence through self-doubt.
Desire is the cause of suffering. That’s because unfulfilled desires cause pain, the pain of desire. One of the reasons for bread is that the desire is for something you don’t really want, but only think you do. That confusion causes pain.
If you can eliminate thought-based desires and you only have pure desires, then there is no confusion and you will be able to focus on your pure desires without scattering your life energy towards desires you don’t really want or need. Then you will have enough energy and positive thinking to acquire your true desires and achieve them. This is the reason why many people have unfulfilled desires, because they pursue thought desires instead of pure desires, and therefore the pure desires remain with them but unfulfilled. This causes endless frustration in life.
Learning to differentiate between pure and thought-based desires ends suffering in two ways; first by removing the confusion of wanting what you really don’t want or need, and second by leaving you the energy to get what you really want.
This is the way to happiness.
My goal in posting my articles is to show you how to feel pure desire again, that is, desire that is not tainted or confused with thoughts born of identification.
When you can clear your mind and heart in this way, you will find that your emotions are purer, your love is stronger, and your relationships are much closer and deeper.
Start questioning all your desires. Find the reason you want it, just like trying to justify your wish to someone who can give it to you, explain why you want it.
This little exercise will help you discover the difference between a pure natural desire and an acquired desire based on thought. As you identify the different desires, you must have the strength and ability to ignore and eventually dissolve the thought-based desires in order to become a focused person who achieves all of your natural goals.
I run a forum that is designed to bring people from all over the world into a unified and harmonious effort to build the strength to make these changes. I invite you to visit the site and participate. See my signature for the link to LawOfAttractionForum.net