There is only one desire
I
have written in previous essay that in reality there is only one desire: the
desire to experience pleasure and satisfaction. The desire tries to find
pleasure and satisfaction in association with the sensory experiences and
objects.
That
means that the objects are only the means that fulfill the main goal which is
pleasure and satisfaction. The objects may vary but the goal is the same
pleasure and satisfaction.
These
days 'by chance' I found in a website that some researchers also found that
humans are addictive to seeking itself and not only to the substances. That the
main problem is more the constant impulse of seeking itself than a specific
addiction to some object or substance.
~~~~~~~~
I put here an extract from this article:
""A new study by researchers at the Universitat Jaume I of
Castellón seems to confirm this finding. The study says that the widespread
belief that dopamine regulates pleasure should be discarded.
According to the study, dopamine is not connected to the moment of
pleasurable attainment of an end result of seeking, but rather to the ACT OF
SEEKING ITSELF. This may explain why people spend hours, days, months and years
enslaved in the act of seeking eating the best donut in the bakery, purchasing
the nicest clothes, drugs, porn,....
That’s how we get a continuous “hit” of dopamine — through the act of
seeking itself.
We could be addicted to anything – as long as the seeking for it is
continuously giving us the hit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
They
call it 'act of seeking itself' but according my own experience this is the
desire mechanism which impels us continuously to find pleasurable experiences.
And as I said in previous essays in reality there is only one pleasure, the
sexual pleasure. All other objects (like food, drinks, substances etc.) are
substitutes for the sexual pleasure. The most common substitute is food
pleasure because the mouth is made from the same tattva with genitals.
The
desire is illogical and projects itself to innumerable objects through
imagination and identification. That's why the companies spend millions of
dollars to adverdise their products.
And
what is the main way to delude the consumers? Sex. Most of ads have a woman mainly or a man
which tries by any mean to trigger the sexual desire of the consumers in order
to associate this desire with the image and the name of their product. If the
desire mechanism or an emotion arises during the play of the ad then the
association has been made and the consumer's mind is programmed and conditioned
by this. You may say no but it is certainly yes. You cannot avoid this. This
becomes a seed in your subconscious and will flourish when the time will come.
Only a yogi with great capacity of detachment and self-awareness could avoid
this.
Thus
the desire mechanism through imagination, projection, association and
identification multiplies and associates itself with different objects. Thus
the innumerable desires are born.
Of
course desire creates in us the uneasiness,, discontentment, incompleteness,
boredom, so as to impel us seek something pleasurable to overcome these
negative states at least for a while, because desire is insatiable and wants
more and more pleasure (greed). The three characteristics of desire is that
wants more, better, more intense pleasure. And when doesn't find pleasure and
satisfaction then transforms itself in disappointment, depression, melancholia,
etc.
Fortunately
the desire mechanism is not the unique factor that functions in us. From our
Soul comes the impulses and aspirations for happiness, love, intimacy, freedom,
creativity, Truth, immortality etc.
Every
human being is a field in which play all lower and superior powers and energies
of the universe. Our lower self clings towards pleasurable exhilarating
experiences which give short term satisfaction and sense pleasure and our Soul
impels us find everlasting happiness , freedom, love, peace etc.
The
intellect is between the lower self and the soul. If the intellect is
hypnotized by the illiusive power of desire then we become victims of desire
and suffer in various ways. If the intellect clings more to the deeper
aspirations of the Soul then it becomes our faithful servant and the powerful
instrument by which we can free our mind from the desire mechanism and all its
modifications and branches (The desire expands as greed, attachments,
addictions, likes-dislikes, attraction-aversion and also as impatience, fear,
anger, envy, disappointment, depression, etc. and then to all mental and
emotional distortions).
According
my experience it is of great importance for the aspirants after truth to investigate
how this desire mechanism functions, how deludes us, how we are caught in its
teeth and how can we liberate our mind from its clutches.
Association, projection, identification, superimposition and imagination
are the arms of the desire mechanism.
We
must investigate how identify with the impulse of desire and how we are deluded
by the imaginations and projections of desire on the objects.
Discrimination,
self-control (control of senses and mind), dispassion, detachment,
self-awareness, constant vigilance and alertness, concentration, prayer, japa
nama meditation as well as patience, perseverance, determination, forbearance,
self-confidence and a sattvic living are essentials in order to eliminate the
mechanism of desire.