When it comes to inviting trouble into our lives, nothing quite compares to our desires. We spend our lives chasing them, and even when we fulfill one, we’re quickly off to the next. Desires are endless, wants are insatiable.
Desire is rooted in a sense of lack. What do you want right now? If you're thirsty, it’s water; if hungry, food; if lacking money, more of it; if unwell, healing; if bored, something to occupy yourself with. There’s nothing shameful in this; we always want something, big or small. Desire and want form the foundation of life itself.
Let’s think: without desire, would we do anything at all? Even our simplest actions are driven by some want. Like gravity pulling everything downwards, desire drives all living things—not just humans but even single-celled organisms. Every movement is born of desire. Try holding your breath for thirty seconds, and you’ll feel an overwhelming urge to breathe. That’s the desire that keeps us alive. Moving from one place to another involves desire. Without desire, there’s no action; without action, there’s no life.
Big desires guide our lives. They define our morals. They affect not only us but also others. We can’t live without them, whether they’re big or small.
We can’t live with them, and we can’t live without them. Our relationship with our desires is exactly this complicated—or so it seems. If we never stop to question how our desires relate to reality, to our nature, or to us as individuals, we might spend our entire lives longing for the impossible. The most impossible of all? Trying to create a fulfilling and happy life by satisfying every desire, one after another. Why?
No object of desire will ever bring us complete and lasting satisfaction. Every fulfilled desire brings forth the next: when we’re hungry, we want food; once fed, we want a drink; once we’re no longer thirsty, we want rest; then, movement; and then, new goals, and once those are met, still more goals… and on it goes. Give a person the world, and they’ll want the other planets. The most critical truth to understand about desire is that it is “unlimited.” Desire is about expanding infinitely, and therefore, there’s no ultimate point of satisfaction.
So, when desires are endless, how much can we truly satisfy our inner self by chasing one object of desire after another? The answer is simple: if counting from one to infinity is impossible, then our success rate here is just the same—zero.
Let’s get to the point. Since life is impossible without desire, and desires never cease, what do we do? When we realize this, our first question should be: How do I know which desires to follow out of all my endless wants? Which desires will benefit me, which will support my existence, and which will drag me down? Will accumulating billions in a bank account make me better or happier? Or is freeing ourselves from pain and trouble the only thing we need?
The moment we start asking these conscious questions, instinctive and impulsive desires give way to chosen desires, to goals that suit us. In other words, in this world of limitless desires, not losing ourselves requires awareness and wise choices.
The critical, or rather, “life-giving” question that may lead to enlightenment is this: Have you ever regretted a conscious choice you made, where your life actually worsened as a result? Take a moment to think sincerely. When you reflect on this, the result is often a profound transformation.
So, once again, we return to a classic saying: life is a sum of our choices.
Some sayings become clichés simply because they’re so true.