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Today's
quotation:
If one gives way to all one's desires, or
panders to them, there will
be no inner struggle in that person, no friction, no fire. But
if, for the
sake of attaining a definite aim, one struggles with desires that
hinder
him or her, that person will then create a fire which will gradually
transform his or her inner world into a single whole.
P.D. Ouspensky
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Today's
Meditation:
Our
desires can be wonderful things, guides that can help us
to learn more about and experience more of this life that
we're living. Our desires can help us to explore
places and things that we wouldn't if we didn't have the
desires, and they can help us to take risks that we might
otherwise avoid. But we must keep in mind that not
all of our desires are healthy, and the fulfillment of
many of them will not lead to positive results. The
fulfillment of many of our desires will lead to damage and
pain, so we must be very careful to be reflective about
our desires and to subdue those that will harm us and
others.
Very
often when I'm running, I feel a desire to quit. But
I don't quit, and the feeling I get from finishing the run
is very positive. Sometimes when I'm not hungry, I
feel a desire to eat. I do my best not to do so,
because then I'm practicing gluttony and I'm eating much
more than I need to eat to survive in this body.
There have been times when I've had a desire to be around
people who are very damaging to me, and learning how to
quell that desire was one of the best lessons that I've
ever learned. Many people have ruined relationships
because they've given in to sexual desires, and in doing
so have destroyed trust and other important elements of a
healthy relationship.
What
effects will the fulfillment of a particular desire
have? Fulfilling a desire to get drunk can have
disastrous effects financially, spiritually, and in many
other ways. I remember how we felt when our father
decided to get just one drink and then ended up not coming
home all weekend, spending his entire paycheck in the
meantime. He would have called it a desire for one
little drink, but the effects were incredibly negative for
the rest of his family.
Some
desires are wonderful, and they help us to grow and become
better people when we work to fulfill them. Others,
though, aren't so great, and it's up to us to figure out
which are which, and which ones we're going to spend time
and energy trying to fulfill. The healthy desires
can lead to wonderful results, while those that aren't
healthy can bring us outcomes that we'd be better off not
experiencing. The desire itself is rarely the
problem-- it's how we see it and what we do about it.
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For further
thought:
Moderate desires
constitute a character fitted to acquire all the good which
the world
can yield. Those who have this character are prepared, in whatever
situation they are, therewith to be content and have learned the science
of being happy.
Timothy Dwight
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