Stopping desire

When we look at an infant or a small child their desires seem both natural and simple.  It is basically about food.  Adult humans who want to study Buddhism don’t have desires that are natural and simple.  They are more complex.  I should add, too, that these desires easily become addictions.  I need my cigarettes and my beer, just to name a few such addictions.  Then I have a lot of things spinning around in my noggin.  Lot’s of fantasies and dialogues going on—fear and anxiety, too.  Even loneliness than I can’t seem to get rid off.  All this can be thought of as blowback from our desires.

Now the question we need ask is where do these desires come from?  Do they come from outside or inside?  And if we want to control them do we look to the inside or to the outside?  The obvious answer is desire starts from the inside.  In a way, we are desire-beings existing through our conditioned psycho-physical body, enjoying the pleasures it offers (mainly sexual) while, at the same time, working to make more desires a reality.  But as I briefly mentioned earlier, there is blowback from desire especially when it has turned into addiction: a certain desire that has to be repeated for fear that its absence should turn into psychological suffering.

In Buddhism the second noble truth which is about the origin of suffering is actually about clinging to the psycho-physical body, otherwise known as the five skandhas.  We have to keep in mind that the first noble truth which is pain, is the five skandhas consisting of physical form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness.  Our connecting with the body of suffering—the origin of suffering—occurs at conception so that we constantly desire it without a break except at the body’s death.  According to the Buddha the only way to stop such desire is realize what is other than suffering, impermanence and not the atman.  This is the unconditioned.  With this realization we can then progressively liberate our actual self from its entanglement with the conditioned psycho-physical body.

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[smith]

meant to post the link to the articles i copied in my previous post - it can be found at the following:

http://news.dhamma.org/2016/04/the-buddhas-declaration-of-non-sectarianism/

[smith]

The Buddha’s Declaration of Non-Sectarianism
April 14, 2016
In a 1991 public talk in Myanmar, Goenkaji referred to the Udumbarika Sutta (see our June 2015 issue). This famous discourse declares that the Buddha’s teaching is open to one and all, regardless of their spiritual beliefs or allegiance. Following is a passage from the sutta.

Let any man of intelligence come to me who is sincere, honest and straightforward; I will instruct him, I will teach him Dhamma. If he practices as he is taught, then within seven years in this very life he will attain, by his own insight and realization, the very goal for the sake of which young men of good family go forth from the household life into homelessness. That is, he will attain the culmination of a life of purity, and will abide in that state.

Let alone seven years—in six years, five, four, three, two years, one year … seven months, six months, five, four, three, two months, one month, half a month. Let alone half a month—in seven days he can attain that goal.

Now you may think, “The ascetic Gotama says this out of a desire to win disciples.” But that is not how you should look at it. Let him who is your teacher remain your teacher.

Or you may think, “The ascetic Gotama wants us to abandon our rules.” But that is not how you should look at it. Let your rules remain as they are.

Or you may think, “The ascetic Gotama wants us to abandon our way of living.” But that is not how you should look at it. Let your way of living remain as it is.

Or you may think, “The ascetic Gotama wants us to get involved in activities that are unwholesome according to our teaching and considered to be unwholesome among us.” But that is not how you should look at it. Let whatever you consider to be unwholesome continue to be considered unwholesome.

Or you may think, “The ascetic Gotama wants to estrange us from activities that are wholesome according to our teaching and considered to be wholesome among us.” But that is not how you should look at it. Let whatever you consider to be wholesome continue to be considered wholesome.

I do not speak for any of these reasons.

There are unwholesome things that, if not abandoned, are corrupting, leading to rebirth, fearsome, bringing the fruit of suffering in future, associated with birth, decay and death. It is for the abandonment of these that I teach Dhamma. If you practice accordingly, the sources of corruption will be abandoned, the sources of purity will increase, and by your own insight and realization you will all attain and dwell, in this very life, in the fullness of abounding wisdom.

—Dīghanikāya, Pāthikavaggapāḷi, Udumbarikasuttaṃ