[MD] desires

[Ham Priday]

Dear Marsha --

On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 5:25 AM, MarshaV <valkyr at att.net> wrote:


> Desires are just a way to ward off one's only certainty: death.
> Desires project existence into the future so one does not have to
> deal with one's fear of death.

[Marsha, later]:
> Except for the wish to become enlightened, the Buddha has said
> that desire is the source of all suffering.  I suppose I needed to
> work this out for myself, because desire has culturally been labeled good.

[Dan replied]:
> Looking at suffering, it seems that without it there would be no
> evolution, no need for "betterment." Therefore, within the framework
> of the MOQ, suffering is seen as the negative face of Quality.

As a Quality devotee, how can you dismiss what drives us all toward 
"betterness"?

Is there anything you do, short of an obligatory chore, that is not 
motivated by desire?  Wanting to paint, listening to music, seeking wisdom, 
falling in love, improving your healh, increasing your wealth, satisfying 
your hunger, caring for your children, longing for peace -- are these not 
all examples of your desiring?

Indeed, Desire is implicit in Value (Quality) itself.  How else but by 
desire do we experience it?  I make no distinction between what we desire 
and what we value.  And it astonishes me that an MoQist can only relate 
desire to Buddha's pronouncement that it's "the source of all suffering." 
Can you explain that to me, Marsha?

Again, I refer to Socrates who put it this way: "...the man who desires 
something desires what is not available to him, and what he doesn¹t already 
have in his possession; and what he neither has nor himself is - that which 
he lacks - this is what he wants and desires."   The cause of of suffering? 
Well, not unless yearning and longing are your idea of pain.

I would hope that you rethink that statement, Marsha.  When you do, I 
suspect you'll realize that without desire life has no value.  And that, 
indeed, would be tragic for any of us.

Of all the responses to your assertion, only David seems to have put desire 
into its proper philosophical context:

[dmb]:
> What we like gets us out of bed each morning and it gets us off
> hot stoves.  It's the continuing stimulus that creates the world in
> which we live.

Amen,
Ham