Desire arises without will, it is a longing or hoping for a person, object or outcome.
Desire is an instinctive emotion, manifested by a longing for a person, object or outcome. Desire arises passively (think ‘passion’) out of the complex interplay in your mind, body and soul, that part of you that is unique, where your character, cultural experiences or religious beliefs and feelings come together.
How your soul reacts to desire depends on your religious beliefs, culture and personal experiences. Desire arises passively, your soul is the filter through which your mind tries to understand it and create a moral compass for yourself. Desire in the soul is often seen as a drive for something greater such as a path to God, a greater creativity, a sense of the sublime.
Desire can be a positive driver to take action but it is the beliefs in your soul that will stop you from taking negative action. An extreme example would be that you are so angry you desire to kill someone. It is a thought that you may have but in most cases, people refrain from taking action. Sometimes you have desires because that is what you have been told or taught to desire but that is not necessarily what your instinctive emotion is telling you. Generally, primary emotions, hard wired into our body, mind and soul, in this case desire are signposts indicating a need to act. Desire, reason and action in certain situations is seen as human conflict between the rational and irrational part of being. The most common association with desire is sexual desire.
Your Soul‘s reaction to desire without religion
‘What your soul desires’ is a phrase that has entered day to day language, probably from the history of religion. Even without religion, there is a part of you that has a unique belief system or ‘soul’, based on your experiences, culture, friends and education and it is in that part of you that your particular desire resides. Arising passively, manifested in your body, desire can dominate your mind. Sometimes described as the irrational versus rational, your mind will give reason to your physiological desire and either indulge or override it.
You may act on instinctive desire quickly and irrationally. The consequences may have an effect on life balance and emotional wellbeing. You may have few desires, or many and move from one to another, constantly seeking more. Desire is a fleeting emotion, it does not last and is a matter of personal taste arising from your soul. Desire for human contact, desire for wealth, desire to appreciate beauty, to do good, to raise children, the list of desires is as endless as human imagination.
Base and Higher Desires in your soul – philosophy and psychoanalysis
There is nothing new about the question of how your soul reacts to desire. Over thousands of years, philosophers and psychoanalysts have been battling with the question.
· Back in Ancient Greece, Plato, one of the first philosophers to define the soul as a moral compass, differentiated between two types of desire. In his work Symposium, he addressed the theory that we have ‘base desires’ such as hunger, thirst, lust, physical consumption and ‘higher’ desires based on intellectual desire that transcend the base desires. From Plato, the term ‘platonic love’, a love without sex, has entered Western language, as a concept of ‘higher desire’ transcending the ‘base desire’. Aristotle, in his work De Anima (On The Soul) suggested that the mind or reason and the animal or instinctive desire are filtered through imagination and can work together towards a pleasurable goal. He also recognized that there are many things you desire because you are told to desire them and induced to believe that these are good.
· Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and considered founder of psychoanalysis and clinical talking therapies, amongst many works wrote ‘Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. In simplistic terms, he introduced the ‘Oedipus Complex’ and considered the biggest drivers of human desires to be sexually driven. His theory, though controversial, remains in modern day thinking.
Does religion give human desire and the soul a bad name?
Generally, messages from the major world religions, though not all agree on the existence of the soul, describe human desire as a fleeting emotion that should be kept in balance with different guidelines on how to do this.
· The messages from the New Testament in the Christian Bible and related religious teachings portray human desire as evil, unruly, lustful, greedy. Human desire is to be controlled and the soul should be channeled to a higher good, a love of God through which eternal life of the soul in Heaven is found. Feelings of guilt and shame, related to the core instinctive emotions of anger and disgust, are drivers to control unruly desires. At a most extreme, addiction is an example of how instinctive desires have become unruly. Many Christian morals have developed to keep a society’s structure functioning peacefully. In the ten commandments, ‘thou shalt not kill’ is fairly obvious whereas some may have become less relevant to today’s world.
· The Islamic belief system follows a similar system of sins to Christianity, whereas ‘desire’ or Dunja is not always seen in a negative light but as an impermanent moment. The Quoran, like the Bible, includes the belief that the soul lives on eternally after the death of the body and provides the guidelines to live the fleeting earthly life in preparation for an afterlife.
· Though Buddhists do not believe in the existence of the soul, the belief is that most suffering is caused by a tendency to crave or desire things. According to Buddha teachings “When desire ends, there is peace.” and the guidelines such as ‘Mindfullness’ and Meditation are mental practices to develop a skillfull control of desires. In Bhuddism, the state of Nirvana, unlike some casual Western interpretations as a place of happiness, is a place of enlightenment, meaning your individual desires and related sufferings go away.
· In Hindhuism, as described in Vedas, the sacred book, the soul’s desires are both for eternal life and divine purpose on earth and are divided into four: kama (emotion and passion and the source of the Kamasutra guide to love and sex), Dharma (duty), artha (wealth and power) and Moksha (spiritual liberation). Nirvana is the reuniting with Brahman, the universal God or universal soul and reaching it requires living many lives climbed up through the varna, or caste system.
How your soul filters desire depends on society
Across cultures, different religions and civic or moral laws, there are guidelines on your soul and the instinctive human emotion desire. Though there are many variations in guidelines, most warn of the dangers of indulging in desire until it is out of bodily or spiritual control or simply no longer fulfills a sense of emotional wellbeing. Some cultures break the guidelines of controlling desire and yet this does not have strong negative emotional consequences. For example, adultery is silently condoned in some cultures or some desire types or amounts of food that others find gluttonous. An Ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, who first defined the seven instinctive emotions had an apt belief that subjecting oneself to ‘Li’ or rituals and responsible roles in society does not mean suppressing one’s desires but learning to reconcile them with the needs of one’s family and broader community.
The struggle to forsake desire plays out in your soul
In literature, music, and art, desire and human passion are often the core themes. The idea of the romantic novel, that took hold in the 19th century or subsequent melodramatic films from Hollywood relies on appealing to the emotions around the seeds of aching desire to an uncontrollable torrent that leads to actions with all the associated human pain and pleasure. Physical desire, personal attraction, desire for food or alcohol, power and how to forsake these or keep them in balance is not only a philosophical discussion but drives whole industries. ‘Take a break’ or abstinence such as fasting or detoxing is a key theme across religions, which has scientific evidence to support the practice. Similarly, mental practices such as meditation or mindfulness help keep desire fresh.
Reach desire in your soul through Yoga
Yoga, though often seen as a physical exercise, in its original form is deeply rooted in spirituality. It is seen through the desire of pleasant physical and mental sensations as a way to unite body, mind and spirit, by strengthening the body, calming the mind, accessing energy sources and reconciling earthly desires with the divine. For Yoga, it is not desire in itself that is negative, it is the attachment and craving of desire that creates suffering. The moment of desire, like yoga exercises, is short lived.
Your body has desires without the soul
Desire without the soul, that part of you that is unique, where your character, cultural experiences or religious beliefs and feelings come together can be considered what Plato original described as ‘base desires’, simply meeting a physical want without pleasure: water to quench thirst, nutrition to meet hunger, sex without intimacy. It can feel more like an animal than a human.
Instinctive emotions are like the weather, beyond your conscious control. For a balanced life, the first step is to understand human instinctive emotions, how they work and practical steps to take in order to avoid situations that are destructive to emotional wellbeing. Not every instinctive emotion that is acted on has positive consequences. Sometimes, it may be best to take shelter from the storm. Desire is complex, not entirely understood by science. It acts as a strong motivator for change but can have negative consequences.
Desire arises without will, it is a longing or hoping for a person, object or outcome.
Desire is universal, triggered by a longing for a person, object or outcome. We all experience it but not always in the same way. It can be a strong driving force to action, such as sexual desire or a craving for food or just a wish.
Desire can be exciting as we anticipate joy or have a negative outcome as impulsive action leads to destructive consequences. Understanding our emotions and how to respond is key to a balanced life.
For more information about Desire you might be interested in these other articles:
What is Desire? Understanding Desire / Desire Explained
How does your body react to Desire?
How does your mind react to Desire?
How does your soul react to Desire?
What hormones are connected to desire?