The Emotion of Desire

Proverbs 18:1

Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.

What is desire?

desire can be labelled as an urge or craving to gain pleasure or relief. Desire can be viewed as a cognitive event, with high emotional charge. During this time the object or activity that is associated with such pleasure or relief is the focus of conscious attention, which involves both images and verbal thoughts about the desired target.

(Below is an excerpt from psychologtoday, read full post here

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-search-meaning/201510/the-four-stages-desire-everything-one-thing) 

"Desire motivates us in many important ways: physical desire, for example, is called hunger or thirst; intellectual desire is called curiosity; sexual desire is called lust; economic desire is called consumer demand. Remove these expressions of desire, and human life as we know it would cease to exist. Our culture in general and our economy in particular are built on our desire for things and experiences we do not have.

The 15th-century Indian mystic Kabir, a poet and philosopher, who today is revered by both Hindus and Muslims, argued that desire constitutes the true wealth of humanity. One of the leading 20th-century interpreters of Kabir was a spiritual teacher named Eknath Easwaran, who once explained in a videotaped lesson that Kabir views desire as having four stages.

The vast majority of people, Kabir says, are born with countless desires—too many desires to pursue any one of them with conviction or dedication. Most concern the superficial aspects of life, such as personal appearance or personal possessions. People who have many desires are the poorest of people, Kabir says, and they seldom achieve any success in any field. Their lives are also the saddest, because they are the most superficial, dominated by too many desires that matter too little."

Many things in life begin with desire, those who make revolutionary dicoveries or grow spiritually are able to do so because of this emotion. As i write these words, i am doing so not because of boredom but because of desire, a certain desire has driven me to get to this point in my life. Desire does indeed separate us and places us on different paths, it seems to me desire foreshadows action and action precedes accomplishment (success). 

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