Desire as Just So
July 22, 2003
Cassandra talks about longing.
I’ve been back thinking about this myself the last few days, in the context of the canonical twin problems—desire & fear… While the problems with fear are fairly obvious, the problem with desire is a little more subtle, at least to those of us who grew up in western cultures.
I’m slowly coming around to the position that the problem with desire isn’t so much desire itself, but rather the implication of dissatisfaction at not having the object of desire.
If you can be satisfied with the state of not having the object of your desire, and find the inherent perfection in the moment of not having it, then if you should attain it, you can appreciate it for itself, and not for the fulfillment of “what was missing”.
On the other hand, if you can’t find the satisfaction in not having it, odds are that you won’t find satisfaction should you get it, either…
Since the Coffee Sutras(where I found this link) has put me in an Alan Watts mood at the moment, I think it kind of comes back to the idea of “The World As Just So…”
There’s something “Just so” about not having something, just as there is in having it…
If you can find that “just so” element of perfection in what you have at the moment, then you get to have more things that are perfect.
On the other hand, if the only thing you can see about your present situation is that it “sucks”, then it’s gonna suck again tomorrow, too, and you get to go on being a Miserable Asshole(tm).
I think you are right on about this. Desire is part of the human condition–unavoidable, frequently arising. The question is what you do with it, or choose not to do with it. Desire enters the realms or morals or ethics. Too often these teachings are bent on suppressing the unsuppressable. Love–in the broadest sense of the term–offers the best guideposts for handling desire and requires no allegiance to anything but itself.