I don't think I'm confusing the terms.
"Live without expectation -- without the need for specific results" can not include desire. Desire IS positive expectation of a specific result for your actions just as fear is negative expectation. Desire is the opposite of fear and those together constitute the puppet strings that are keeping humans from being free.
I was not indicating that people should not act passionately (by this I mean with full awareness and consciousness of their current moment). Desire and fear are what cast your mind out of the present moment and keep you "asleep."
I certainly do not advocate everyone crossing their legs and meditating all day. I prefer the popular quotation of Joseph Campbell: "Follow your Bliss." That is to follow the path in life where you feel yourself completely unencumbered by any expectation. Where every moment you are being your true self and utterly at harmony with your world.
This necessarily requires a negation of desire (for approval, money, status, whatever) and fear (of failure, rejection, etc).
I'm going to stick by my original commentary about desire. At every moment, each and every one of us has all of the tools necessary to be truly happy. Desires and fears blind us to this.
__________________
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici. (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe)
The self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships
You & I, no distinction. - Tat Tvam Asi
Become Who You Are |