Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, my name is David McLeod.
There are many teachings that suggest that we ought not get attached to our desires.
Buddhist teaching, for example, highlights the relationship between liking, preferring,
desiring, and wanting.
Liking is the response we have to some kind of pleasurable stimulus.
Preferring is what we do when we make a choice of one thing over another.
Desiring is the process of recognizing a call to move toward a particular choice.
And wanting is what happens when the object of our desire is unavailable and we are attached
to having that thing.
Now, it's pretty normal for us to move toward the things we like and to move away from
the things we don't like.
But if we let ourselves become attached to what we like—in other words, our ego-minds
now have a stake in the outcome—then we can easily and fairly quickly move into the
space of wanting.
It is in this space, this space of wanting, where much of our suffering can appear, because
our ego-minds are constantly reminding us that we don't yet have the thing that we think
we want! It's a kind of catch-22, isn't it?
Obviously, not all desires are for physical things.
Some of our very real desires are for non-physical things, things like love and compassion and
connection and oneness.
In fact, I would say that even our physical desires are motivated at their deepest level
by a desire to give or receive love.
In other words, the physical thing we think we desire is actually just a strategy for
getting what we really desire!
Now, what about "Heart's Desire"?
What exactly is that?
Well, you know, the word "desire" comes from a Latin word that means literally "from the
stars" or "from the heavens".
Thus, our "Heart's Desire" is actually a call for Universal Spirit—the essence of heaven—to
guide us in the direction of our true purpose.
It shows up as feeling within us that, if we sit quietly and listen to it, is actually
trying to move us in the direction of self-realization and fulfillment.
Our "Heart's Desire" is always trying to get us to express and experience ever-expanding,
ever-evolving versions of ourselves, so that we can grow into the most fulfilled beings
we can possibly be.
May you always be fully aware of your "Heart's Desire", and may you always be guided to think,
speak, act and feel in a way that is consistent with who you really are now, and who you are becoming next.
Bless you on your journey.