steph53...
Matrix Reloaded was less of a resource on this
topic than I had imagined. On the other hand,
Joni Mitchell said it very well:
"Don't it always seem to go
that you don't know what you've got
'til it's gone..." - Joni Mitchell
Saabster-ga has expressed wisdom in his comment,
in that "the grass is always greener on the other
side of the fence" precisely because we seek our
peace by way of changing the things outside of us,
such as our location, our circumstances, our
possessions.
You are also beginning to notice that there are
levels of peace. Some are quite temporary, such
as the satisfaction following a good meal.
Others are so profound as to be unshakeable,
such as "the peace that passeth understanding".
The more our sense of peace depends on fulfillment
by something in the material realm, the less lasting
it truly is. The more it is founded in the invisible,
eternal and all-encompassing, the less likely that it
can be disturbed.
In recognition of this, I have long wanted to author
a book, titled 'Addicts All', based on my perception
that the root of all addictions, as well as the
ultimately unsatisfying "seeking after material
things" in which we all engage, is an emptiness
based on our longing for a fulfillment which can
only be met by 're-cognizing', or coming to know
again, our oneness with the self-sufficient and
perfect nature of the source of All That Is.
In short, we are all 'addicted' to the feeling of
fulfillment inherent in the experience of oneness
with our deepest, truest nature, from which we have
become separated, but whose peace we have not
forgotten in our innermost depths. Therefore we
innately seek that fulfillment in all the ways
proffered by our cultures, traditions, friends and
families, memories and imaginations. Eventually,
we begin to see that these methods are insufficient
to the task of achieving lasting happiness, and we
begin to sense, as all the saints before us, that
only by arriving at a comfortable familiarity with
the very core of our beingness can we find lasting
peace.
Enter the spiritual teachers, who say:
"All your agonies arise from wanting something that cannot
be had. When you stop wanting, there is no more agony."
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi)
"...desire for the world has deprived man of the Object of
his desire."
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi)
"In a human being is such a love, a pain, an itch, a desire
that, even if he were to possess a hundred thousand worlds,
he would not rest or find peace. People work variously at
all sorts of callings, crafts, and professions, and they
learn astrology and medicine, and so forth, but they are
not at peace because what they are seeking cannot be found.
The beloved is called dilaram because the heart finds peace
through the beloved. How then can it find peace through
anything else?"
(Signs of the Unseen: The Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi)
"All the hopes, desires, loves, and affections that people
have for different things -- fathers, mothers, friends,
heavens, the earth, gardens, palaces, sciences, works,
food, drink -- the saint knows that these are desires
for God and all those things are veils.
When men leave this world and see the King without these
veils, then they will know that all were veils and
coverings, that the object of their desire was in reality
that One Thing... They will see all things face to face."
(The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual Teachings of Rumi)
These, and other quotes are available from the Islamic
website, Halal.com, in Malaysia, on their page on
'Understanding the Nature of Desire":
http://www.halal.com.my/halal1/desire.asp?hidname=Jalaluddin+Rumi
Another page, from the 'Mysticism in World Religions' site,
quotes Chuang Tzu on 'Understanding the Nature of Desire':
"Love of colors bewilders the eye and it fails to see right.
Love of harmonies bewitches the ear, and it loses its true
hearing.
Love of perfumes fills the head with dizziness.
Love of flavors ruins the taste.
Desires unsettle the heart until the original nature runs amok.
These five are enemies of true life.
Yet these are what men of discernment claim to live for.
They are not what I live for.
If this is life, then pigeons in a cage have found happiness!"
The full text is available from this link:
http://www.digiserve.com/mystic/Taoist/Chuang_Tzu/desire.html
And. finally, I will quote Harry Palmer, founder of AvatarŪ,
from his book, 'Love Precious Humanity - the collected wisdom
of Harry Palmer'. I should note here that, from the AvatarŪ
perspective, desire is irrevocably intertwined with resistance,
in that resistance to something produces a desire for it,
be it conscious or deeply hidden and denied:
"Resisting a creation means that you will not willingly own it,
experience it, or recognize yourself as its source."
"Either desiring or resisting results in the attraction of the
creation that is the subject of your attention."
"If you resist something with enough force, you project it into
environment and are surrounded by it."
"The surest way to make something persist is to resist it."
"Pretending is resisting what you decided to believe."
"Desire is a resistance to being without. Resistance is a
desire to be without. At the root of both is longing."
[for one's true nature]
"You cannot change your relationship to an upset, pain,
idea, or fear by resisting it. You must experience it
to its limits, without resistance, before you can step
beyond".
and, last, but not least:
"Desires. Resistances. They supply the motives that
direct your life when you don't."
The homepage for AvatarŪ is here:
http://www.avatarepc.com/
...and the book is available from this page:
http://www.avatarepc.com/html/books.html
That should provide you with some food for thought, and
there are more links resulting from the search linked below.
Please do not rate this answer until you are satisfied that
the answer cannot be improved upon by means of a dialog
established through the "Request for Clarification" process.
sublime1-ga
Searches done, via Google:
"nature of desire"
://www.google.com/search?q=%22nature+of+desire%22 |
