<p>I might be complicating this but for some reason I am confused about the difference between our desire and our genuine needs. Although I can recognize that a desire is for example wanting more, bigger, better material things like cars, houses, money, clothes, jewelry,... as well as the desire for untangable things like the desire for watching TV, video games, porn, sex, success, education...as well as spiritual experiences. Also I recognize needs like the basic needs for water when one is thirsty or the need for food when one is hungry or the need for heat and/or clothing when one is cold or the need for a house for shelter.</p>
<p>So would you say that a need is something that satisfies the immediate asking from us without getting to the point of addiction and/or obsession as well as something that does not feed the ego? For example the need for clothing to protect us as well as to keep us warm as opposed to fashionable clothing that only feeds the ego of pride which will bread an addiction and more desire for the latest fashion.</p>
<p>What about when it comes to for example water and food? As it is now thank God I have water and food every day. But since our water system is polluted with chemicals and toxins I would like to purchase a water filter to protect my health. Would you classify that as a desire or a need? The same goes for food - am buying organic most of the time but also thinking of growing my own fruits and vegetables as much possible, having my own chickens for eggs ect in order to reduce my expenses as well as getting it fresher which is again better for my health also inspiring others. So once again would that be a desire or a need? Also what about learning? Is this yearning for knowledge in me a desire or a need to know?</p>
<p>How can one differentiate between the two and what classifies something to be a desire or a need?</p>
<p>So would you say that a need is something that satisfies the immediate asking from us without getting to the point of addiction and/or obsession as well as something that does not feed the ego? For example the need for clothing to protect us as well as to keep us warm as opposed to fashionable clothing that only feeds the ego of pride which will bread an addiction and more desire for the latest fashion.</p>
<p>What about when it comes to for example water and food? As it is now thank God I have water and food every day. But since our water system is polluted with chemicals and toxins I would like to purchase a water filter to protect my health. Would you classify that as a desire or a need? The same goes for food - am buying organic most of the time but also thinking of growing my own fruits and vegetables as much possible, having my own chickens for eggs ect in order to reduce my expenses as well as getting it fresher which is again better for my health also inspiring others. So once again would that be a desire or a need? Also what about learning? Is this yearning for knowledge in me a desire or a need to know?</p>
<p>How can one differentiate between the two and what classifies something to be a desire or a need?</p>
Accepted Answer
Knowing the difference between need vs. greed is a matter of conscious discrimination. We all have needs that must be met for our physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual and economic well being. Our needs are what they are: they must be fulfilled, or we simply cannot get succeed and get by in life. However, we say that desire is excess: it always wants more than is necessary. It always seeks to go beyond, to the exorbitant, to the exaggerated. Where needs end, covetousness begins, which seeks to accumulate for the sake of accumulation, not because it fulfills a necessity so that our life can function.
It is true we need money, a home and place to sleep, water and food. But when that becomes excessive, exaggerated, more than what you utilize on a daily basis and more than you will ever need, we can say that the secret triggers of such behaviors in accumulation and hoarding are rooted in desire. For example, you need a car to get to work. But ten cars? You need a house or apartment in which to live and sustain yourself. But five? You need money to buy your necessities, but millions of dollars that are saved while people around you starve?
Eating organic is not necessarily driven by desire, but it can be. It is necessary for us to eat healthy as much as possible. In fact, we recommend that you do. But it is important not to make diet one's religion. It is necessary that our diet reflects and assists our religion, and not that our spiritual discipline exclusively consists of regulating what we physically eat.
You will come to know what is need and what is greed through meditation. You have to analyze, with a concentrated mind and heart, all of your necessities and all the extemporaneous things in your life. This analysis depends upon the scrutiny and discriminative understanding of the consciousness, directed with one-pointed concentration. Lesson Five from Introduction to Gnosis by Samael Aun Weor might assist you in comprehending this subject. It provides a meditation you can work with in order to learn how to discriminate between need vs. desire.
It is true we need money, a home and place to sleep, water and food. But when that becomes excessive, exaggerated, more than what you utilize on a daily basis and more than you will ever need, we can say that the secret triggers of such behaviors in accumulation and hoarding are rooted in desire. For example, you need a car to get to work. But ten cars? You need a house or apartment in which to live and sustain yourself. But five? You need money to buy your necessities, but millions of dollars that are saved while people around you starve?
Eating organic is not necessarily driven by desire, but it can be. It is necessary for us to eat healthy as much as possible. In fact, we recommend that you do. But it is important not to make diet one's religion. It is necessary that our diet reflects and assists our religion, and not that our spiritual discipline exclusively consists of regulating what we physically eat.
You will come to know what is need and what is greed through meditation. You have to analyze, with a concentrated mind and heart, all of your necessities and all the extemporaneous things in your life. This analysis depends upon the scrutiny and discriminative understanding of the consciousness, directed with one-pointed concentration. Lesson Five from Introduction to Gnosis by Samael Aun Weor might assist you in comprehending this subject. It provides a meditation you can work with in order to learn how to discriminate between need vs. desire.
Joyful in hope, suffering in tribulation, be thou constant in thy prayer.
Benedictis, qui venit in nomine Domini. Osanna in excelsis.
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!"
Accepted Answer
Knowing the difference between need vs. greed is a matter of conscious discrimination. We all have needs that must be met for our physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual and economic well being. Our needs are what they are: they must be fulfilled, or we simply cannot get succeed and get by in life. However, we say that desire is excess: it always wants more than is necessary. It always seeks to go beyond, to the exorbitant, to the exaggerated. Where needs end, covetousness begins, which seeks to accumulate for the sake of accumulation, not because it fulfills a necessity so that our life can function.
It is true we need money, a home and place to sleep, water and food. But when that becomes excessive, exaggerated, more than what you utilize on a daily basis and more than you will ever need, we can say that the secret triggers of such behaviors in accumulation and hoarding are rooted in desire. For example, you need a car to get to work. But ten cars? You need a house or apartment in which to live and sustain yourself. But five? You need money to buy your necessities, but millions of dollars that are saved while people around you starve?
Eating organic is not necessarily driven by desire, but it can be. It is necessary for us to eat healthy as much as possible. In fact, we recommend that you do. But it is important not to make diet one's religion. It is necessary that our diet reflects and assists our religion, and not that our spiritual discipline exclusively consists of regulating what we physically eat.
You will come to know what is need and what is greed through meditation. You have to analyze, with a concentrated mind and heart, all of your necessities and all the extemporaneous things in your life. This analysis depends upon the scrutiny and discriminative understanding of the consciousness, directed with one-pointed concentration. Lesson Five from Introduction to Gnosis by Samael Aun Weor might assist you in comprehending this subject. It provides a meditation you can work with in order to learn how to discriminate between need vs. desire.
It is true we need money, a home and place to sleep, water and food. But when that becomes excessive, exaggerated, more than what you utilize on a daily basis and more than you will ever need, we can say that the secret triggers of such behaviors in accumulation and hoarding are rooted in desire. For example, you need a car to get to work. But ten cars? You need a house or apartment in which to live and sustain yourself. But five? You need money to buy your necessities, but millions of dollars that are saved while people around you starve?
Eating organic is not necessarily driven by desire, but it can be. It is necessary for us to eat healthy as much as possible. In fact, we recommend that you do. But it is important not to make diet one's religion. It is necessary that our diet reflects and assists our religion, and not that our spiritual discipline exclusively consists of regulating what we physically eat.
You will come to know what is need and what is greed through meditation. You have to analyze, with a concentrated mind and heart, all of your necessities and all the extemporaneous things in your life. This analysis depends upon the scrutiny and discriminative understanding of the consciousness, directed with one-pointed concentration. Lesson Five from Introduction to Gnosis by Samael Aun Weor might assist you in comprehending this subject. It provides a meditation you can work with in order to learn how to discriminate between need vs. desire.
Joyful in hope, suffering in tribulation, be thou constant in thy prayer.
Benedictis, qui venit in nomine Domini. Osanna in excelsis.
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!"
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