Quote:
Originally Posted by Og  I don't think that negation of desire is synonymous with negation of happiness. The idea of freeing yourself from the bonds of fear/desire is about removing the strings that drive you like a puppet in life and opening you to true happiness of freedom that comes with self awareness. |
I think you are confusing desire with need here Og. Desire and need are opposite ends of the same spectrum. Need being defined as an attachment to results i.e. as something you wish to be/do/have and if it is not a part of your now experience, it will affect you. Desire being defined as merely a passionate preference with no attachment to results.
"Those who seek so earnestly to overcome all earthly passions often work at it so hard that it might be said, this has become their passion. Often a person on what you call a spiritual path looks like he has renounced all earthly passion, all human desire. What he has done is understand it, see the illusion, and step aside from passions that do not serve him--all the while loving the illusion for what it has brought him: the chance to be wholly free."
The "negation of desire" is therefore not really a negation of desire but an elimination of attachment to results and for those who are "enlightened" in an eastern sense, they have merely have chosen spiritual passions over earthly ones. This may be a path to happiness for some but it is not necessary for freedom, happiness or self awareness. If all were to practice literal "negation of desire", the world would literally cease to exist and would be nothing more than a bunch of meditative zombies. How boring would that be? I believe that we are here for more than merely that. The world is our playground of creation and creation requires passion which requires desire. The trick is to let go of expectation and attachment to results.
"Passion is the love of turning being into action. It fuels the engine of creation. It changes concepts to experience. Passion is the fire that drives us to express who we really are. Never deny passion, for that is to deny who you are and who you truly want to be. The renunciate never denies passion--the renunciate simply denies attachment to results. Passion is a love of doing. Doing is being,
experienced. Yet what is often created as part of doing?
Expectation. To live your life without expectation--without the need for specific results--that is freedom...Renunciation is not a decision to deny action. Renunciation is a decision to deny a need for a particular
result. "