No wanting, no life

If you don't know what you want to do, have, be, get, give, receive, use, make, create, etc etc, you are not fully alive.

Think about it

I was thinking of exactly this when watching someone blather on about eliminating your ego because that is what makes you 'want' for things.

I was thinking, isnt that 'want' the drive you need in life? Giving you the passion to push on, surely if nobody had that want we would all be bald, sitting at the top of mountains omming our days away.

Id like to meditate to clear my mind everynow and then, but not at the expense of my ego, I like my ego I like the force and sense of purpose it gives me and when I realise that purpose I will get more joy that I would being some happy clappy hippy egoless nut job living in a shack on a mountain.

You are absolutely correct. In fact, according to the Buddha, one who rises above all desire and attachment has reached an end to the cycle of birth and rebirth, and on his death, will attain nirvana – that is, 'extinction' or 'annihilation'. For Buddhists, this is the ultimate goal of mental and moral practice.

Where you and the Buddha differ is that you don't regard annihilation as a desirable thing. Many will agree – I do, for a start – but perhaps that is due to our unenlightened condition.

The word 'ego' in this context is confusing and inadvisable. The word was given its present-day meaning by Freud, who used it to refer to that part of the mind which has a sense of self and feels conscious of itself. Meditation does not result in unconsciousness – simply, as I understand it, in a radical readjustment of priorities. Which is all very well if you are materially and socially very well off indeed, or if you don't mind starving to death or being exploited and discarded by those around you. Those who do not live under such conditions should avoid meditation. It is harmful to one's physical and social health.

That is true, and so often we find out that when we become what wanted then it is just a facade, a cover or lie.

Or maybe we discover that what we first wanted to become is not possible?

Then we may become suitably bitter, and enter middle age.

But darn it, in the modern age even that is not allowed.
Changing careers and technologies call for constant re-invention of the self, just like Madonna.

Originally posted by Manula
If you don't know what you want to do, have, be, get, give, receive, use, make, create, etc etc, you are not fully alive.

Think about it

This right here and right now is aliveness.
Aliveness does not have to be wanted - it just is.
This is being - it does not have to become.

...but that's what is so hard

To say that If someone isn't wanting anything then that someone isn't alive, is to distort the definition of living.

If the body is breathing, then it is alive. It is automatic.

To make the definition of "alive" anymore complex is to "force" expectations and put unnecessary judgement on oneself.

reply to post by arpgme

To say that If someone isn't wanting anything then that someone isn't alive, is to distort the definition of living.

If the body is breathing, then it is alive. It is automatic.

Surely it wants to keep breathing?

reply to post by Manula


Does it matter if you try

To be just what you want

When all you really want

Is that you don't have to try

Originally posted by Itisnowagain

Originally posted by Manula
If you don't know what you want to do, have, be, get, give, receive, use, make, create, etc etc, you are not fully alive.

Think about it

This right here and right now is aliveness.
Aliveness does not have to be wanted - it just is.
This is being - it does not have to become.

I starred it because I think I know what you're saying. Are you saying that we don't have to have wants and desires, and that a lack of wants and desires won't stop us from being here and now? Now explain what the hell I just said.

reply to post by jiggerj


It is more like to experience the present moment by enjoying it, rather than being delusional of something that is not in present
For example,
Sometimes when we eat our breakfast, our minds already think about where to have lunch, what to have for lunch, etc. And instead of focusing on the food in front of us, we follow the minds, deceived by it.

Of course we cannot stop our minds by forcing it to stop.
Most of the time we usually get carried away by our minds, And we forget we are doing something, right here, right now.
The only way to make minds quieter is to watch it in action and let go whatever things it throws.
Slowly our minds will be quieter and we will feel better with our life, more peaceful, lively, etc

Originally posted by jiggerj

Originally posted by Itisnowagain

Originally posted by Manula
If you don't know what you want to do, have, be, get, give, receive, use, make, create, etc etc, you are not fully alive.

Think about it

This right here and right now is aliveness.
Aliveness does not have to be wanted - it just is.
This is being - it does not have to become.

I starred it because I think I know what you're saying. Are you saying that we don't have to have wants and desires, and that a lack of wants and desires won't stop us from being here and now? Now explain what the hell I just said.

I am saying that whatever this is 'reality/existence' - it is happening and it is alive. Everything is happening - what is needed or required right now? The idea that you have to do, want etc. is just an idea. Does anything have to be done for life to be? Life looks after itself very well when the 'need to' idea drops away.
When life is viewed as art instead of a puzzle or a competition it looks completely different and it feels different too.

I see want as a pure thing, however, others see want in terms of "acquisition" and this refers to tangible things - you can plan to "have" something, and say that it is what you "want" - you can also see something and then it can become something that you "desire" - however, "want" as it remains is generally always that "something else" that "could happen" - and obviously if you think of it as something that happens to you, as opposed to something that you "make" happen, then simply being aware and striving for the conditions that allow this to occur, and being aware of the consequences of failure - as all chances taken can result in something amazing - or - something terrible.

That is fear itself, and if you are on top of things, and you never give up, you might eventually have that "thing" that you wanted to have - it has to be something that you can never forget - something dangerous - something that allows you to say "If I failed, I would have been absolutley decimated".