One, when one desire is fulfilled, another arises. One need not make an effort to desire. Desires arise naturally from the fact of being alive. Two, the fulfilment of a desire can satisfy a particular want or need. Yet, we thirst for lasting bliss and peace, joy and contentment. This does not seem to arise as a natural consequence of the fulfilment of any desire. Since this is a fundamental desire arising in every human being regardless of his/her circumstances and conditioning, age and gender, religion and nationality, our fundamental desire for lasting bliss, joy, contentment and peace merits further examination.

We find that happiness is a state of mind. Although one can be and often is happy on account of a desirable occurrence, the fulfilment of a wish or desire, by pleasure and prosperity, by good health and enjoyment, by power, wealth and status, happiness by itself is not necessarily a product of any of these. Human beings have found peace, joy and contentment in the midst of great misfortunes and adversity. Also, many have failed to find it even in the midst of great success and prosperity. The arising of great peace, bliss, joy and contentment within us appears to be a result of the state of mind we are in, the quality of our awareness and consciousness, of how we actually perceive ourselves and our world. In this important sense, it seems to be related to our own minds rather than the fulfilment of desire. Many of us are conditioned to believe that happiness can and will arise only by the fulfilment of our various desires. Since desires themselves are innumerable, this erroneous assumption and misconception of happiness necessarily being a result of fulfilled desire, needs to be seriously questioned and investigated.

As human beings, we have certain needs – for air, for food, for water and so on. These are a necessary condition of being alive. Obviously then, we need to fulfil these to live. Further, we need shelter. We need to survive. At what point exactly, our physiological needs end and our psychological needs and desires begin may be difficult to say. There may also be enormous differences between various individuals between their perceived needs and desires. There is a difference between a need and a desire in the physiological sense. The fulfilment of a need may be necessary for our very survival and health. The fulfilment of a desire, on the other hand, may give pleasure and enjoyment while its denial may not necessarily affect either the survival or the health of the individual. When we talk of health, we also have to refer to the health of the mind. This is where the infinite variety and complexity arises. If a particular man, in his mind, considers the enjoyment of sex of great significance in his life, his thinking may make the desire for sex overwhelming in his life. A denial of sex might actually make him sick in some way. Our minds have great power. They can make us sick or healthy, happy or sad, joyful or miserable. Yet, it is only a perceptual shift and the way we see our worlds.

Since a multiplicity of desires arises primarily in the mind, we are concerned with the nature of the mind and its propensity to desire. Is desire merely restlessness in the mind? Is it merely an impetus for action based on sensory impressions and memories? Are not our desires largely a product of our own conditioning and thinking? Isn’t the society and culture we live in actually conditioning us to desire certain things and shun others? Do our desires reflect ingrained patterns of thought and action? Do they reflect the limitations of our mind? For example, in a consumerist society, a woman's body is constantly used to advertise and sell products and services. Advertisements often show us a beautiful and/or scantily clad woman whose beauty or exposed charms are intended to attract our attention. Our attention seems to be the key. Are we in this process, merely conditioned animals, conditioned to look upon a woman as a sex object, looking at her body merely from a sensual or aesthetic point of view? Isn’t our mental conditioning, which has been deeply ingrained in us, established by nature and nurture, being triggered with an ulterior motive to sell a product? Aren’t our minds subtly deceiving others and ourselves with an intention to fulfil our own desire?

A businessman desires to sell his product. Is he deceiving his customer by focusing on and triggering the customer's attention by a scantily clad model? Are we, in our various activities, exploiting our own mental patterns to achieve a desire? In this process, are we deceiving others and ourselves about our so-called morality and ethics? Are we strengthening conditioned thought patterns, are we responding mechanically and unthinkingly, are we actually thoughtless animals in many of our actions? Our propensity to desire is often a conditioned response; deeply ingrained and repeatedly strengthened by the society and culture we live in. By sheer repetition, a lie may be mistaken for truth. Have we examined the roots of our own desire? Have we investigated into what we really desire and why?

The mind can, from its storehouse of memories and impressions, project desirability onto an object. Thus, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Mostly, even in the mind of the beholder. If we do satisfy one desire projected by the mind, another arises. What does the mind really want? Why does it repeatedly and endlessly project desires? Are we not setting out on a wild goose chase and a futile journey by trying to fulfil our every desire? Is our philosophy, our need for honour, for fame, for wealth, merely old wine in a new bottle? Is our mind cleverly projecting our old, hidden desires in seemingly grand and socially acceptable and respectable ways? Have we examined the very roots of our desire? Have we examined and observed its true nature? Is a particular desire merely a symptom of a restlessness of the mind? Are we mistaking the symptom for the root? What is the root cause of desire? What is the desire underlying all desires? Can satisfaction of desire be the aim of life?

A multiplicity of desire indicates the superficiality and dissipated focus of the mind. It shows the lack of total attention and a clear intention. When desire arises with complete focus of attention and clarity of intention, it becomes a purpose. It is purpose that gives meaning and direction to life. Yet, our stated purposes may often only be conditioned responses, a mere repetition born of conditioning. The word purpose does not imply purpose. A deep desire with the accompanying focus of total attention and a clear intention can be a liberating and guiding force in our lives in the form of true purpose. This desire, arising from the very depths of our being, brings with it a garnering and focus of our energies and intelligence. It brings us to a decisiveness and clarity in our lives. Its pursuit can give our lives great meaning and direction. Its achievement can be a matter of enormous pleasure and great joy. Yet, this only underlines the unavoidable fact that love, peace, joy, and contentment are our true nature, our deepest self. It is our learnt complexities and notions, our patterns of thought and action, our own mental projections, our dissipated mental focus, our scattered attention and our confused intention that create barriers between our daily lives and our potential for infinite joy. To abide in total stillness, to remain in thoughtless awareness with total attention is to return to our true nature where we shall find infinite love, peace, joy and contentment.