Desirelessness

 Do not love the world, or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1John 2:15 NSV

What do you really want?  Do you know?  

Alan Watts speaks of wanting ....in another video I cannot at the moment cite....  He speaks of our inability to know what we want as desirelessness, which, he believes, is a state we can benefit from.  Of course it is a Christian , Buddhist, as well as other teachings' aim...to be desireless...to want nothing of this world. 

I am not sure, however, that desirelessness  means to put away all our wanting.  When we put away all our wanting, we are denying a very human aspect within us that keeps us moving forward...are we not?  I often write of the "giving up on wanting" cancer that afflicts many of us and by that I mean we may reach a certain state of hopelessness, usually after a series of defeats,  where we  give up on wanting and expecting anything and we  simply "endure" life rather than see it as as the miracle it is. This desirelessness, I believe anyway, is not what is  meant by Watts and the Buddhist teachings.

What was done with this so called "Law of Attraction" is not what is meant either. The world we live in is not meant to be a big Pez dispenser we can simply push with a thought so a "desired" treat pops out. Even if we get that treat...that is not what we really want and making that the aim can even make us sick. This is why we are warned by certain teachings to put away our desires...at least for the things of this world. Focusing on getting the treats can confuse us as to what we really want. 

When I look at the above bible passage I think what was meant was not to be overly attached to the things of this world...at least not above the Love that makes us who we are. 

So what do we really want?

So Watts in this video I cannot cite at the monment ( sorry) tells us that what we really want is unknown to most of us.  He says it is unknown for two reasons:

1. We already have it.
2. We don't know who we are. 

Huh?

1. We already have it!  What we really want is not something out there in the physical, external world.  It is not something that can be found up ahead in the future or dragged up from the past. It is not something tangible that you can hold in your hand or percieve with your five senses.  It is not something you are not already equipped with.  It is something already in you.  Something you just don't see because your thumb is too busy clicking the Pez button down. 

2. We don't know who we are.  We don't know what we want because we don't know who we are.  We falsely believe that we are these bodies and minds, these egos that act like a veil between us and Self. These egos like the Pez container philosophy but who we really are knows better. We are spirit having a human experience, not humans having an odd spiritual expereince.  What we really want, then, is not of this world because we are not of this world. What we really want is intangible...it is peace, love, joy that comes from realization of who we are.  It is seeing and allowing the higher consciousness and awareness of all that is in this moment to be....that we want.  We just won't know that ( and I don't mean on the conceptual level but on the experiential level) until we get beyond ego to Self.

Hmmm! So sure...enjoy and be grateful for  your treats if they come your way.  Keep your thumb clicking away if you so desire ...but  do so with a certian desirelessness, knowing that whatever you get from this external, physical world will not fulfill you or sustain you. What you really, really want is deeper and more Life sustaining than that. 

All is well in my world.