Ajahn Jayasaro (1958-present): Know your desires.
Buddhism distinguishes two kinds of desire:
the first (tanha) to be abandoned and the second (chanda) to be
cultivated.
Tanha is the desire that arises from a basic
misunderstanding of the way things are: perceiving permanence, happiness and
selfhood where they do not exist. Desire for the pleasures to be had through
getting, getting rid of and becoming is tanha. Tanha leads to personal
suffering and is the basis of almost all social ills.
Chanda is the desire that arises from a
correct understanding of the way things are. At its heart lies the aspiration
for truth and goodness. Desire to do well, desire to act well, desire to act
kindly, desire to act wisely — all desires based on an
aspiration for the true and good lead to personal fulfillment and healthy
communities.
The distinction between chanda and tanha is
not philosophical but psychological. By looking closely at the raw experience
of life the distinction between desires that lead to genuine happiness and
those that do not becomes increasingly clear.
The above is extracted from the book ‘Without
and Within’ which is freely downloadable here. Ajahn Jayasaro was
ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1980 and studied with the famous Thai forest
monk Ajahn Chah. He was abbot of Wat Pa Nanachat in Northeast Thailand for
several years and now lives in a hermitage near the Khao Yai mountains.
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