Well I think maybe the first issue is, what do you mean when you say "buddhist?" Because there's a whole lot of different strains and traiditions of buddhist thought, and not all of them agree with each other. Is there any specific tendency whose ideas don't sit well with you?
Well, the way I've learned, it's not so much about avoiding desire as about learning to let go of attachment to the things we desire.
Imagine someone tells you that they're going to give you a chocolate cake. Chocolate cake is good! It's good to enjoy it. But if you spend all day fixating on the cake before you eat it, if you wish for more cake after it's gone, if you compare all subsequent chocolate cakes in your life to that one, then how much suffering have you endured because of your attachment to the cake?
There are ascetics in buddhist-majority regions that beg as a form of meditation, with the goal of letting go of ego and attachment to desire. If they are given food or money, great. If they aren't?
Well I think maybe the first issue is, what do you mean when you say "buddhist?" Because there's a whole lot of different strains and traiditions of buddhist thought, and not all of them agree with each other. Is there any specific tendency whose ideas don't sit well with you?
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Well, the way I've learned, it's not so much about avoiding desire as about learning to let go of attachment to the things we desire.
Imagine someone tells you that they're going to give you a chocolate cake. Chocolate cake is good! It's good to enjoy it. But if you spend all day fixating on the cake before you eat it, if you wish for more cake after it's gone, if you compare all subsequent chocolate cakes in your life to that one, then how much suffering have you endured because of your attachment to the cake?
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There are ascetics in buddhist-majority regions that beg as a form of meditation, with the goal of letting go of ego and attachment to desire. If they are given food or money, great. If they aren't?
Also great.
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