“You’re not going to believe this.. but you used to fit right here,” a mentally deteriorating Rocky Balboa spoke to his son. “Now, if you know what you’re worth, go out and get what you’re worth! But you got to be willing to take the hits!” For all intents and purposes, Rocky is informing his son that he lives in an era in which if he wants something, if he has a burning desire for something, nothing can prevent him from achieving it if whatever it is that he wants is, indeed, a desire that burns. It would appear that eastern and western philosophies are at odds in how they think of desire, when it comes to wants, with the west suggesting that one go out and take it, and with the east suggesting, essentially, that one remove wants and desires from their lives entirely. Are we not caught in two minds, Westerners, oh, with the “American Dream” and all? I suppose there is a question that we must answer: Which do we prefer? To “take life by the horns,” so to speak, and take what we can, or do we simply let life happen as it will, striving to be at peace with what we already have at our disposal?
As I arise from underneath the bodhi tree, ah yes, reader, it does appear that I receive the things that I want when I no longer want them, seemingly only when I no longer want them, and while that might sound contradictory, is it so? Is not the idea of wanting what you have – juxtaposed with having what you want, to be grateful for whatever manifests itself in our lives when it does, without having wanted it first? I would never have thought that I would want the things that I have in my life today. If it were up to me, I would not have drawn it up this way, but this way is the way, the only way, and a way in which I have little-to-no control. “The root of suffering is attachment,” said Gautama Siddhartha. Does one not suffer, if even periodically, when one becomes attached to someone or something, and would not that suffering cease to exist if there were no attachment? Do we not agree that “good things come to those who wait” and that what we are doing within that waiting – is not wanting? Cities rise, cities fall, people come, people go, so will I, and so will you. “Ain’t nothin’ permanent in this world, Jake.” That is not what Denzel says, but it applies anyhow. This is all well and good, reader, theoretically, and while one may declare to the outside world that this is possible, who dares admit to themselves that, as they sit back down beneath the bodhi tree, the fire of desire still rages?
Since we are quoting, here is an apparent conflicting quote from Napolean Hill: “The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE.” Well, which is it!? Is desire the starting point of achievement or the root of suffering – or is it both? Let’s fire it up again, shall we? “You cannot lead a true life without suffering,” said Mahatma Gandhi. Once more! This time from Dostoevsky, “To love is to suffer, and there can be no love otherwise.” I am not an enlightened being like Gautama, so perhaps I just do not understand, but from my experience, tragedy and suffering are the inevitabilities of life. This being the case, that tragedy and suffering are unavoidable anyway, why not desire or aim toward the highest, whatever my conception of highest is, and suffer through that journey since I have to do it anyway? Logical enough, eh? Is that not what “picking up your cross and walking it up the hill” is? I venture to say that all the wealthiest and wisest (because they didn’t add wealthy in the adage, “healthy, wealthy, and wise” for no reason) men and women would tell us all to set a goal, to work our hardest to achieve it, and if we fail, to try again. In other words, they would tell us to suffer for what we want most. No? Most of the WYSB readers are westerners; therefore, it is settled. Define your goals, define your most burning desires, push all your chips into the middle of the table, and go get what you want out of life. Ask, and ye shall receive, my friends!
Can you hear Gautama laughing in the background? The 2022 version of the Buddha might utter something like, “You ain’t got to go through allat, bruh.” Let me ask you something, reader, does it ever stop? For me, the “addict,” you could say, it does not, but I pose this question to everyone. Does it? When you get what you so desperately desire, does not, in turn, another desire arise from the depths? It is difficult for me to imagine the most prominent spiritual figures ever to exist, Jesus and Gautama come to mind immediately, ever suggesting to any of us to want more out of life other than to find “inner peace” and to help others do the same. Are we not supposed to emulate them (whilst not wanting to “be” them) to the best of our ability? However, is the desire for inner peace, the desire to help others, not a desire in and of themselves, albeit a perceivable righteous one? Ah, so it is a question of motives, is it? “I want to become rich to help others,” you might say. Sure, but while that is conceivable, as you know, the human agenda is an endless hotel with floor upon floor upon floor. Let us not mask the truth. A rich man wishes riches to enjoy the finer things in life, first, with helping others as a sub-goal. Tell me it isn’t so, readers. If you conclude that I am wrong about that, it appears to me that you are positing that one could not help others without riches, and that could not be further from the truth. Now, tell me that isn’t so.
Whatever shall we do then, pals? We can either desire and suffer or not desire; and, therefore, not suffer. Those seem to be the options life has presented us. If you want my personal opinion, well, I have never been a fan of pity-pay answers such as, “it’s a combination of both!” With that in mind, I now have to pick a lane. The answer cannot be to want. There is too much evidence that the removal of desire brings into our lives things that we wanted but that we never knew we wanted. How, though? That seems to be a problem today. All these grand ideas, but nobody knows how to get there – nobody offers any viable solution. Perhaps, a possible solution would be to change the things that I, or we, want. Maybe instead of wanting “love,” the aspiration becomes to “be” love so that we can give love, and is that not a great joy? Maybe instead of wanting to be rich in order to help others, we become rich in wisdom or knowledge so that others may become rich – meaningfully rich, meaning abundant or plentiful in the aspects of life that matter most. Oh, my. Could you imagine how sweet life would be? Yeah, sounds good. But, bro. Have you seen those Jordan 1’s? The purple and yellows? They match the vintage Los Angeles Kings suit I want. Consider them copped. Hmm. What else do I want?
