Buddha was a figure who had all the material wealth in the world including good looks and a great wife. Any person during his time would envy his position. Yet, he basically threw this all away in search for spiritual enlightenment. He learned that desire is the root cause of misery and that getting rid of desires and superficial attachments is the key to happiness. What I find interesting is that it takes a person who “has everything” in life to completely revert and find happiness in almost achieving nothingness. In other words, he found meaning when he learned that the absence of desires truly made him content and happy. This concept by Buddha can be well applied into our present day society. We live in a world where technology seems to advance faster than we can adapt. Especially in western society, we are conditioned to seek the newest technologies and replace old ones. We learn new ways in which we can communicate through our cell phones and Internet mediums, yet it will never replace basic human to human contact. I believe the power of desire can undo humanity, so it is important for people to learn its destructive nature.
and the yang of that yin is that some shave the head bcos hair is seen as a symbol of vanity and desire, but this extreme is just ugliness so don't lose the spirit in the quest for perfection without the antagonistic nature of passion we have no reason to do anything like i have a desire to destroy all alarm signals on cars and buildings it drives me crazy that some people can even tolerate any of this sort of nonsense
wow yawn that was quite an elaborate stement ever think of applying what you say to what you actually say? or are you toooooo tiiirrrreeeeddddd after all?
For me, granted from my learning of Kabbalah, Its not that we need to get rid of desires, we need to alter them. Without desires no one would be able to move from what ever position they find themselves in while reading this post we wouldn't be able to voluntary twitch a muscle without first having a desire to do so. According to Kabbalah, if we strip away every part of us, the last part remaining, being our very essence would be a desire for pleasure. Maybe Buddha did eradicate many desires but this could only happen if he had an even greater desire to get rid of them. Desires are a bit like a bulge in an innertube, you push it in but it only pops out somewhere else.
I think that when desires are spoken of in connection with the Buddha, they are referring to desires for material objects and forms of acclaim; in fact the same things that are regarded (or were, at least) as serious sins for Christians: Lust Gluttony Greed Envy Pride Vainglory Desire for peace, happiness, health, etc. is quite different - as long as not taken to extremes.
HI These desires appear quite different on the outside, but thats just a dressing. Underneath, at their essence they are the same, a desire for pleasure.
Desires are "psychological", their scope is so large. Needs are "physical"; they circumscribe physiological needs. This could define what would be spirit and matter, right? Physical needs translate into desires: desires can become physical needs; so vices are born from uncontrolled satisfied desires and they could become physical needs. Spirit can dominate physical needs but matter itself does not have any scope on desires.
I disagree. Pleasure for oneself which also gives others pleasure is quite a different kettle of fsh from pleasure for oneself regarfdless of how others are effected. It is (possibly) no suprise that giving pleasure to others is in itself pleasurable, although often disregarded in the pursuit of ephemeral desires.
Hi Symptom I think this is where the disagreement lays I maintain that the motive for giving pleasure to others is because its pleasurable to us, I should imagine that you feel the pleasure we get from giving pleasure is just a by-product, not the cause. If we think of personal pleasure as the cause or root of all our desires, wether they be to give or to receive, all of our desires can be seen as varying expressions of the same thing, a desire for pleasure.
Thats a good question It's said that there are two types of desire, internal and external. The internal desire is the desire for pleasure and external desire we use to satisfy the inner one. I suppose these external desires can be called needs to satisfy the inner even though its possible to eradicate them. Yet there are certain basic needs of the body, such as, food, sex, shelter and warmth that we can't do without but these needs of the body are a different class to the needs of desire.
I generally agree with you, but... Sometimes our systems go a bit haywire, for example we have a basic need for food, and many people cope with this quite well, on the other hand there is a growing (pun intended) number of people within whom this need is out of control and they eat too much and so become big fat bastards, which is quite damaging to themselves, and indirectly to others. Sunlight is a similar case. I think pleasure is another - it is not abnormal to seek pleasure, it is abnormal to seek it willy-nilly.
Obesity is caused by eating habits changing, and its the type of food that needs to be altered to avoid over-eating. Its a chemical imbalance that can be rectified by cutting out gluten and sugars. Changing the type of food eaten stops the craving. Historically we could only eat meat in the winter which stopped this imbalance naturally. If one cuts out pleasure-seeking and fun behaviour, life becomes hardly worth living. Which is why societies that tolerate a certain degree of hedonism survive better. The desire to 'go back home soon' is what drives soldiers to take risks they ordinarily would not. Its ironic that all the images of Buddha I have seen, are of a fat guy.
Even those who commit suicide do so because they get more pleasure from it than living. Life is all about seeking out pleasure, we seek and find it all sorts of ways. Call me a spoil sport if you like but I think it wise to try and stay within the law though.
Hardly within the realms of "normal" beahviour is it? There is a difference between seeking pleasure and getting respite from pain.
Maybe "getting respite from pain" doesn't enter the equation, perhaps it should be replaced with "a lack of pleasure in living". We crave pleasure and if we are not finding any pleasure in living then the mind can go haywire.
