Desire: Friend or Foe?
August
2009
It
is never the idol that you want,
but what you think it offers you.
A
Course in Miracles
Desire. Friend or
Foe?
Let's face it: desire has gotten a bad rap for
centuries. With roots in both eastern and western
religious traditions, renunciation of desire has
penetrated the collective psyche as a noble aim in an
ever-expanding material world. We are taught - through
an onslaught of psychological, sociological, and
spiritual influences - that desire is selfish and
fleeting...and that the ego (desire's vehicle) must be
defeated in order to experience true happiness. Yet
despite our best intentions, desire remains a human
epidemic we have yet to overcome as a species. Some
might wonder, if we are truly evolving, why are we
still yearning?
Humans are a species mesmerized by dichotomies. We
continually do the dance of extremes in order to propel
ourselves forth. Desire is a force hard to deny; thus,
when renunciation of the material world wages a war
within, we turn to consumption. After feeding impulse
after impulse, we find we are still left empty. We
pretend our hunger means nothing...we pretend it means
everything...and now we are ready to stop pretending.
Every human longing points to a potential within. Our
minds are magicians, continually whipping up potions
that we think promise us the end we are seeking. We
spend time and resources casting spell after spell in
hopes to manifest the IT that will deliver us the
sensation we so long for. Time and time again, the
end-result is short-lived. Thus, we blame desire itself
for leading us astray.
Yet, what if we are simply missing the point? What if
desire is not the problem. Perhaps it is our approach
to it that needs to be re-evaluated. I have come to
understand that each and every desire (without
exception) point us in the direction of a
universally-desired sensation. Thus, at the heart of
our desire is alignment with a potential that is
seeking to be born through our life experience.
What You Really Want is
YOU
The object of your desire is not the problem; the fact
that you want IT is not the source of your mood swings.
It is in the misunderstanding of these impulses that
you find cause to suffer. Put simply, desire is an
indicator that something more is calling to you. Life's
struggles aren't a result of the cycle of incessant
wanting. Suffering may be due to attachments to the
many forms that your physical creation has taken, or
may take in the future. Or, perhaps more commonly in
our western culture,
suffering is ignoring oneself and never fulfilling the
potential buried beneath surface
longing.
What you really want is to E X P A N D - to express
more of your evolving essence. The objects of your
desire are simply things that you believe will deliver
the goods - the goodness that it your birthright.
Desire is the eager whimper of a more expansive YOU
that is currently hidden from view. To deny it is to
deny your innate tendency for growth and expansion.
Paradoxically, it is the denial of our deepest desires
that causes the ego run amok. Anyone who has ever
stayed the course of a circumstance (or way of being)
long-outgrown knows the blessed tantrums of the ego.
Interestingly, when we finally let go and yield to what
would feel better - in thought, word, or action - the
tempest fades. Alas, could the ego be an ally on this
journey?! Oh yes, indeed!! An
ego-soul alliance is pulsing at the core of
this message.
Metaphorically speaking, your soul is in a state of
perpetual rebirth. (I mean, in this life, you are meant
to evolve continually). Your ego and the world of form
offer vessels of gestation through which you are meant
to grow in and out of. And, it is the contractions of
desire that deliver you forth. They ensure your
expansion by pushing you towards greater degrees of
love, joy, freedom, and well-being.
Expansion through
Form
Some spiritual teachers have told us to seek the
medicine from within. They say that if we sit still
long enough...if we dive deep enough...and if we resist
the dream of the physical world around us, we will be
rewarded with limitless joy. Yet, is the point of this
physical dimension simply to deny it? Or, can we have
both? - the boundless joy of expansion and the
pleasures of human existence? Rather than enlightenment
in spite of the physical world, could this planet of
ours become the container through which we express our
collective enlightenment?
Every aspect of the living world is in a state of
perpetual expansion. Growth and evolution of form is
the way of the physical domain. At the root of this
propulsion forth is - you guessed it - desire. The
longing for something better. Desire is the catalyst
for change. Change is a means for personal expansion.
And personal expansion is the key ingredient in
collective evolution. Accept and embrace your desires
as reflections of latent potential within all of
us.
Join the Dialogue
Those of you in the Portland area, join me this
Thursday, August 13th at New Renaissance
Bookshop. I am honored to be
leading a coaching forum that will shed a new light on
desire, the ego, and the metaphysics of creation. We
will explore and evolve the Law of Attraction through
the lens of the soul. Questions, comments, and
contributions are welcome. Hope to see you
there!
Click here to sign up.
Note: CLICK
HERE for a follow-up post on the Soul Vibes
event.
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