Is Desire the Opposite of Peace?  

Is desire the opposite of peace?

Can desire be witnessed from peace, as peace?

We see these days a huge amount of advertisements for ‘financial freedom’ on the internet.  If you invest here and now in this new thing you will be rewarded with untold wealth!  Quick!  This window of opportunity will soon close!  Does that sound familiar?

Are the promises true?  May be.  May be not.

From a dualistic perspective, chasing success in ‘the world’, seeking power, financial freedom or status is essentially being ‘enticed’ by desire, by wanting.  It is not necessarily ‘wrong’.  It is natural to be attracted to the amazing things of this world and enjoy them and pursue them and we may be drawn on that path – for a long while.

However it is common to discover that after a while, what we were really looking for is perhaps not in the place we were looking.  Is that fair to say?   Perhaps the deeper truth is that we are seeking something that the material world cannot ever bring.  Could this be so?  Is this helpful?

Desire itself can seem to be the very thing that is in our way to peace and happiness – can it not?  Search and look in your own experience to see what has really brought you true and lasting happiness and real lasting peace?  Has any ‘thing’ done that?
Perhaps desire can be seen as a way of actually rejecting what is here and now.  Not being happy with ‘what is’ and spending our lives searching, unfulfilled and feeling like there is something missing.  Something unfulfilled.

And yet paradoxically the search is a necessary part of it all, it seems.  Our seeking can be an act of grace that ultimately beings us fully home.

What is missing?

What is missing?  Your Self!  The one True Self – this is what the mystics point to as the source of true happiness and liberation, beyond the concepts of bondage and freedom.  Non dual reality.

We can feel we are somehow waiting for our real life to start, WHEN we get this or that, in the future.  The ego promises another journey to the destination of satisfaction, but does what is promised by the ego mind ever really come to fruition?  May be some sort of temporary satisfaction we can enjoy but is this fulfilment lasting and real?  Or is it another passing scam that could be ignored as we abide in and as The True Self?  Our own being.

The Bible says:

‘But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is lured away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.…   James 1:13-15

This passage says desire can lead to death.  What does that mean?  What kind of death are we led to when we follow desire?  Sinful behaviour is seen as rooted in lust, greed, jealousy, hatred, violence etc

These things can lead to death of the physical body, but perhaps what is pointed to here it is more subtle than that also.  Perhaps this death is not necessarily physical death.  I would suggest it is also a kind of existing that is not fully alive.  A life spent asleep, spiritually.  In a kind of dreamlike state.  Numb to the fact that life actually is miraculous and the Kingdom of Heaven is actually here on earth now – for those who have the eyes to see.  To truly see with subtly, depth, understanding and an illumined mind.  To wake up to truth, out of the grip of egoic identity and all its scams and empty promises.

Practical Example

Recently an unconscious hidden ambition was seen – or a need to achieve somehow that was driving a kind of pattern of behaviour that is not so loving and that is not in the natural flow.  This felt painful.  But this pain, held in the heart rather than acted upon, transformed into insight.

A feeling of sadness arose as things felt somehow not right or in harmony with ‘what is’.  However – gratitude was there also.  By the grace of God, there is a space that allowed such things to be seen or observed from a deeper and more subtle place of awareness.  Here it becomes clear that this desire and attachment and behaviour is not who I truly am.  This takes the acidity out.  There is somehow a sense of release and peace.

Mooji often also says ‘don’t identify’ and that is a powerful tool that is so liberating.  This mind activity is actually observable, from a deeper space of awareness and that seeing is amazing as it allows there to be a spaciousness and an ability to dismount or unhook from such an unconscious temptation.  There is indeed a shift from personal identity to conscious presence.  This feels like a release from the desire which has the potential to genuinely reveal more peace and love immediately.  I feel hugely grateful for this.

One Step Further

But who feels grateful and who is being released?  This is the joy!  This transcendence of ego identity dissolves the concept of ‘I me’ into no thing at all.  From ‘Person to presence‘

So going one step further, the ‘I’ that benefits?  Also thrown on this sacred fire of Self Discovery.

Oh Lord I pray you would burn any arrogance or false identity by the laser light of your powerful truth.

Desire for God

Having said all that – as alluded to before.  Is there also a desire for God that is healthy and good and part of the seeking that leads us to truth?  To humility, to surrender?  Perhaps so, paradoxically.

It seems there are desires that are somehow vibrationally more dense (ego based selfish, grasping, fearful desire) or more ‘satvic’ or pure.  The God Self enticing us towards truth, self discovery, love bliss and shared being.