"Our desires presage the capacities within us; they are harbingers of what we shall be able to accomplish. What we can do and want to do is projected in our imagination, quite outside ourselves, and into the future. We are attracted to what is already ours in secret. Thus passionate anticipation transforms what is indeed possible into dreamt-for reality."
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Many people think that Buddhism teaches that desire is evil, that it is the root of all our problems. Root out desire and nirvana is right around the corner. Sorry, but not true.
Desire isn't the problem, desire is the solution to all our problems. Attachement is the problem. Without desire we would still be living in caves, watching the wilder animals eat our children when they stray alone and unprotected from the safety of the cave and campfire. Desire is what drives advancement, what drives all attempts to better ourselves, whether materially or spiritually.
Desire is what spurs you to question the conditioned life you have been living. Desire is what drives you to study the dharma. Desire is what convinces you that life could be better if you willingly sit your butt on the cushion each day. Desire is what brings a teacher into your life. As Geothe says, desires "are the harbingers of what we shall be able to accomplish."
Truly desire to see it and you shall. Truly desire to let it live you instead of you trying, vainly, to live it and it will. Truly desire to let go and see that you are already there and it is done.
Desire to desire with no attachment to the results and the end of the path is near. Desire to let compassion define your life and you and the path may disappear.
It's an open secret — in truth there is nothing to desire; when you desire, examine your pronouns. Until you get over your pronoun fetish, however, know that desire isn't always/usually the problem in your life.
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