Don't Eliminate Desire for Spiritual Growth
Every action is the result of tension being released. When energy is held under tension, we call it desire. Essentially, desire is simply energy attempting to be expressed in some way. Religions may teach that desire must be eliminated for spiritual growth, but this is not the case. Doing so would be detrimental. Since all mental and physical activities result from energy discharged from desire, the elimination of desire would result in total stagnation and failure to produce anything.
Three ways in which desire is released include:
1. Through objectivity, similar thoughts are generated.
2. Releasing it into the 4D plane attracts events according to our feelings.
3. Upon physical stimulation, endocrine glands produce a chemical change in the body that results in observable changes in behavior.
Therefore, conditioning our desires is the appropriate course of action. Without desire, we would cease to grow, becoming passive creatures that devolve into lower life forms. The only control you and I have in changing our destiny and our life's trajectory is through appropriate modification and channeling our desires. With that said, it is easy to fall for temptations and become addicted to pleasure. When this happens, we fall into the trap of attempting to exhaust these experiences rather than grow from them.
Doing so only hardens the ego and imprisons us within it. As mentioned earlier, it is necessary to seek enjoyment and pleasure in life, for this is the only way we can connect with the outside world. By completely killing our pleasure-seeking nature, we would become like a plant that cannot draw nourishment from its environment. And we all know what happens to such plants; they quickly wither and die.
The key is not to stop at enjoyment. Allow it to serve as a teacher for your growth. After being taught by pleasure, do not forget to move on to work. You should not consider life's pleasures as the end goal but merely a means by which you can ennoble yourself and be of service to the world in a greater capacity.
Article by Rin Otori