When A Desire Pops Up & We Run Away From It, It Becomes Stronger

Hey guys,

I hope that you guys are doing amazing wherever you are in the world.

My name is Boomshika and I welcome you to my channel.

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I'm here again in front of Wat Santitam.

Wat is the term in Thai for temple and so this is Santitam temple.

It's not one of the most beautiful ones but it's one of the most serene ones I found because it's not that popular maybe so it's not that busy which means that it's quiet and it's just so peaceful and the monks here are very diligent.

I find them cleaning the surroundings every morning and diligently working and doing their thing quietly,

Appreciatively,

Humbly and so I really appreciate the energy here because some temples you can go to and the monks are a little bit not so humble if you want to say that.

Also,

They're rushing around doing different things and so they're busy and so here the serenity really hits you and it makes me so happy to be here.

So I thought I'd share this energy with you guys as well.

Also because I'm doing a video today about desire and not necessarily in terms perhaps not related exactly to Buddhism but I have some thoughts on desire and how we as a society view desire and how we should or we should try to view desire so that it's not so harmful.

I want you guys to focus on the temples so my face is in the darkness but I hope that's fine.

I want you guys to see the beauty of the temple and to feel the serenity of it so my face is just on the side here.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Now the essence of life right now I believe of consumeristic life of American culture which has permeated exactly around the world.

Every country nowadays has that Western-ish,

American-ish culture,

That consumeristic,

Materialistic culture and it's fine.

It gives us luxury,

It gives us comfort,

That's the way a lot of us want to live.

I appreciate it as well.

I'm grateful to have certain luxuries in my life.

It makes my life more comfortable and more serene,

More peaceful.

But in general I'm talking about desire where you desire something so much so that it overtakes your entire life.

And I'm sure you've had those moments as well.

I've had those moments many times,

Many,

Many hundreds of times in my life where I'm sitting there calmly,

Peacefully doing my thing.

I'll be reading a book or whatever it might be and I'm relaxed in the moment in time and I feel good about myself and all of a sudden I'll have this random desire pop up in my heart,

In my mind,

In my soul,

Maybe not in my soul but my heart and mind.

Probably just in my mind,

Not in my heart.

And so it'll be this desire for something.

So for some materialistic good,

Sometimes for something else but mostly it's for something like a new backpack or some new tripods or some new electronic equipment so I can do my videos better or a piece of cloth or a new fabric or something random.

There's so many different things that you could desire as a human being.

And if you don't have any desires you can just go online.

There's a hundred thousand things that people are trying to sell you.

There are beautiful,

Gorgeous things that you'd want.

In general desire is not a very hard thing to imagine.

I'm sure you guys have had a desire for a particular car equipment or a particular motorbike or a travel experience or a symphony orchestra ticket or whatever it might be.

There's many hundreds,

Thousands of desires out there and so you've had this desire all of a sudden.

I'm sitting there and I get this desire for something and it's very powerful.

It overtakes every single mechanism in my mind.

All I can think about is the desire.

All I can think about is that item.

I want that item.

I want it.

I need it.

I have to have it.

I have to have it right now.

It has to happen right now.

If it doesn't happen right now I swear I'm sure that I will not be able to live anymore.

It is the most important thing on this planet,

The only thing I can think about and I need to have it right now.

So that desire overtakes our mind and we get inculcated into it,

Inaugurated into it so much so that we can't think about anything else for the next few minutes,

Few hours.

And then what happens is that we go buy that item or we get that item,

Whatever it might be and then for a few moments,

A few minutes maybe the desire subsides and we're fine.

We feel good about ourselves for a few moments.

We feel,

Yeah,

I'm content now.

I'm good.

I don't think I need anything else.

I'm good.

I don't,

I'm good.

I'm perfect now.

Like everything is great.

I have nothing to worry about.

And then because we haven't looked at the underlying cause of the desire,

A few days later,

A few months later or a few weeks later,

A few hours later sometimes the desire pops up again.

But this time around it has to do with something else.

We want something else.

We want a piece of cake or perhaps we want a pizza,

Huge pizza or we want some cheesy goodness or we want cookies or the desire has translated or transmuted itself into something else,

Into the desire for food now perhaps.

And so until you get that item,

You again can't be satisfied.

You need it.

You want it.

You got to have it.

Once you get it again,

The desire subsides for a bit and then you can move on.

And then again,

It's a cycle.

It comes up and goes and comes up and then goes away and then comes up and goes away.

But again,

The whole point of this is not that I'm saying that this is fine.

I'm saying that what happens is that what we don't do is that we don't realize first of all that our society in general is based on desire.

If human beings do not have desire,

We wouldn't buy anything.

The economy wouldn't work the way it does.

Consumerism wouldn't work the way it does.

Materialism wouldn't work the way it does.

And people wouldn't buy as much stuff and perhaps some people say that the economy would collapse.

I don't know if I necessarily agree with that.

But in general,

Things would be very different.

So desire is the basis of our society.

People tell us to desire things because we need to desire things in order to be better.

For example,

Society might tell me that I'm not dressed appropriately,

That if I was dressed like this,

No one's going to love me.

And so I need to go buy those pairs of that pair of heels or that stiletto or that nice jacket or get my hair straightened or whatever it might be so that I can look more beautiful and so that people would desire me more and then I would find my mate and live happily ever after.

So desire is the basis for all the different things that we do and buy and live in mostly our life is based on it.

What happens is that a lot of times our desire,

That desire that we have for food is the superficial desire.

It's the superficial need.

And we haven't really analyzed or gone beneath it to figure out what's it actually really talking about.

What do we really want there?

What are we really thinking about?

And so what happens with this desire and with Buddhism and with the meditation practice that I've been trying out is that what you do is that when you get those hits of desire,

It's basically like it feels like a drug hit.

You get that hit and there's nothing else you can do except think about it and you're just completely enamored with it.

You're just in it.

You're deep in it.

You're underwater with it and there's nothing else you can think about.

When you do get that desire,

It's very hard to separate yourself from it and think,

Okay,

Stop.

Take a deep breath,

Relax and think about what's actually really going on here.

What's actually really going on,

Right?

A lot of times what happens to me is that I was reading a book perhaps and I saw something in it that was about a loving relationship perhaps or someone really understanding someone else or really appreciating them and all of a sudden I want a backpack.

Well,

No,

Not really.

I don't want a backpack.

I want someone who really understands and appreciates me.

I am looking for that kind of loving relationship perhaps and that's what my true need is,

My true desire,

But I am blanketing it or covering it over with this random other superficial desire that is achievable.

I mean,

It's achievable.

You can go buy a backpack,

But you can't go buy a loving relationship and in fact it takes a lot of work and what I'm reading a lot of times is not reality either,

So it's not based on reality.

That's how a lot of the desire works is that what we do is that we try instead of just getting completely into it and not thinking about anything else,

We take a step back and meditation and mindfulness helps us with that obviously and a lot of desire-based stuff is one of the essences of what Buddhism tries to teach us,

Some of what Buddhism tries to teach us and so we take a step back.

We relax.

We try to figure out what we're trying to fulfill with this back.

Sometimes perhaps it's just a backpack.

Yeah.

I'm always saying that it's always not the backpack.

Sometimes it is a backpack.

You don't have a backpack.

You need something to carry your stuff in.

It's useful.

Maybe it's just the backpack.

Maybe you're just looking for that.

Perfect.

Great.

Go buy the backpack if you can't afford it or wait until you can and get it.

Sometimes mostly,

I would say 95% of the time it's not the backpack.

It's not the material item or the food item or whatever you're thinking about.

It's something else deeper within you.

But unfortunately,

It's very difficult and actually really scary to dip down below the surface and to look at,

Okay,

What am I actually really desiring here?

What am I actually really looking for?

Is it love?

Is it a relationship?

Is it acceptance?

Is it understanding?

What is it?

Is it passion?

Is it compassion?

What am I actually really looking for?

Why do I think I need this particular item when I really don't need it?

I have three backpacks at home.

Do I really need another backpack?

Not really,

Right?

That's just an example.

I think I only have two backpacks at home.

So I do need one more.

No,

I'm just kidding.

But in general,

This is what I'm trying to say.

So not that I've been successful and a lot of times I'll have a desire for something and I'll be sitting there thinking,

Oh my God,

I really want potato chips.

I really want spicy potato chips.

And I'll be sitting there thinking and I really try to be like,

All right,

What's underneath this?

Are you feeling lonely?

Are you feeling afraid?

Are you feeling scared?

Are you feeling upset about something?

What actually do you want to fulfill?

What need are you trying to fulfill here?

But it's difficult.

It's very difficult to do that.

Of course,

This is just the first step and we just have to try.

We have to try.

Otherwise,

If you don't try,

We're not going to succeed.

So this is what I ask you guys to do in this.

Try it out next time you have a desire for something instead of just letting the desire overtake you.

Take a step back,

Breathe and think about what actually is happening underneath the surface.

Okay.

If you guys have any questions about this,

Obviously please message me.

You can comment below and I will do a follow up video.

And again,

I hope you like these videos outside.

I hope that you like the energy of this place.

I love this temple.

It's so beautiful.

If you guys want to support me further,

You can do that by going to my Ko-fi link.

The link is in the description below and I shall see you guys next time around.

Bye for now.