In Hindu and Buddhist traditions, and in many others as well, there is the notion that the root cause of evil is desire. In Christian terms this would be temptation.
I’ve always imaged desire as a devouring and demanding God. First he wants you to do something. Then you do it. And the reward is feeling good. The doing, whether it is giving in to eating more than you should or for the wrong reason, or any other kind of addiction (and we are an addictive society because we relish feeling good), is like giving the God what he needs. In return there is pleasure, albeit fleeting pleasure.
Ever give a puppy a treat and watch him frolic in delight? It feels good to make him happy. And what does he do next? He wants another one of course. He knows about feeling good. So we give him another treat. And then again. Until finally we say enough and draw the line. We have that puppy in us. We feed him and he wants more until we say, um, “just say no.” Where we draw that line differs from person to person.
There is a rub in all this giving in because as we give in this God's demand increases. First you give him 25 cents, then he wants 50 cents for the same amount of reward he doles out. Or maybe he gives more pleasure. And so we pay more for even more. And more. And gradually we become dependent on this God. After all, he has the power to make us feel good. This can override any moral and ethical standards we might otherwise have. To wit, what do you think caused the economic meltdown on Wall Street? What fueled the motivations of the big bankers? They were busy feeding the God, who, of course, always wants more. The more we feed him, the more he needs to make us happy.
The Christian answer to desire is to demonize it. We deny, avoid, minimize, ignore, pray and so forth. The Islamic answer seems to be the same thing.
The Taoist answer though is different. We cannot ignore what is apparent. Desire is a fact of life. We are hard wired for desire because we are incomplete. We keep seeking more fulfillment though where we are looking for it is often the wrong place. It is like looking for a camel in a donkey market.
The Taoist response is to relate to it with understanding and not self identify with the reward desire promises. This is a crucial difference. If I say I will be happier or more fulfilled when I give into desire, then I’m equating satisfaction with myself. But if I shift that perspective and decide I do not need to be that satisfaction then I have more emotional space to consider alternatives. What if I don’t need to be richer or thinner or more beautiful or happier or higher because I know those things do not define who I am?
I’m sure this is baffling to many people. We are so used to equating ourselves with our things, bigger house, nicer car, more money, more prestige, another partner. But without that, who would I be?
Who do I want to be?
