Philosopher Alan Watts once said “It is so important to consider the question: What Do I Desire?” and it’s difficult to disagree with the man. If we can find an answer to such a question, then we can answer what it is we truly want to do in life. Buddhists believe that desire is a great corruptor and that is true; Desire can lead to a corrupted life but only in great excess. It is not selfish to indulge in life’s desires, enjoy life, and do what you will! But we just cannot let desire control us. So many people say they want to be writers, or artists but always make some comment about the money, as if that should be the main concern. Money should be the least important thing when choosing a career. If you love to do something enough you could eventually become so skilled, and you could master it. Furthermore, in any hobby or passion you are interested in you’ll find others who are interested in it too. For example, I love to snowboard so I hang around mountains a lot and thus find other likeminded people. If you just do what you love, and follow your desires to a certain degree you will find a community that is interested in the same things you are.
While I am an optimist, and proud of it; I do understand that we need to make a living and the cost of living is absurd in today’s society. Although, perhaps it’s not society’s fault as an abstract concept. Perhaps its humans fault that the cost of living is so extreme, perhaps it is us who have an expensive lifestyle.
Which brings up a second question: what do we need?
What do we really need when it all comes down to it? Perhaps we need to fill our time up with as many things as possible in order to live a fulfilling life, or so we can somehow find out purpose or career in the complexity of everyday life. I would argue that instead of a lot of things; we need very little. It feels like that we have lost our connection with simplicity within life; that we have become so obsessed with leaving a mark that we get so caught up in so many things and in order to have a lot things or do a lot of things, then we need to focus on a career that makes a lot of money so we can have a lot of that. However, if we can rekindle our relationship with simplicity then we can truly recognize that the things we need are very few, then we can correctly enjoy the things around us. We can responsibly enjoy desire; we can share our desires in order to share that experience with those who don’t have the access or opportunity to enjoy the same desires as you. What we need to do is realize some of the most important things are also some of the most simple within life. If we can unlock the knowledge that can show us the true meaning of our being, then we can realize that living a life is incredibly moving, and anything that we want to add to our lives to somehow make it better or more meaningful are actually less important than actually being alive and sharing life with others.
At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what we do as a society; as long as we put our entire heart into doing it and the only things you can truly put your heart into are the things you love. So ask yourself “What do I desire?” but understand that a life conquered by desire is a life that is counterproductive to society. That being said, indulging in life and enjoying our wants is not a bad thing, but as long as it is done responsibly. As long as we are considerate to each other and fully prepared to share the things we want with others then our desires power to be corrupt will be balanced out by our willingness to share with one another.
