“When you resist your desire without knowing the reason why you resist it, you will not be able to eliminate your desire permanently”

“When you resist your desire without knowing the reason why you resist it, you will not be able to eliminate your desire permanently”

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Question: Does the desire disappear because we are resisting it or because we use paññā to eliminate it?

Tan Ajahn: When you resist your desire without knowing the reason why you resist it, you will not be able to eliminate your desire entirely or permanently. You have to see that your desire does not bring you happiness but suffering.

It is like when you have the desire to take drugs. You have to see that taking drugs does not bring you true happiness, but it will surely bring you immense suffering. When you can see that, then you will stop. When you resist it, you might resist it from time to time, but when your resistance is low, you might not be able to resist it again.

So, you have to see the cause and effect of your actions following your desire that will not take you to contentment but only to more desire, eventually killing you if you take drugs. And then it will take you to a new birth to suffer more aging, sickness, and death. You have to see the cause and effect of following your desire and not following your desire.

It is like taking poison; if you know that what you are taking is poison, will you take it? Everything that we take, every single thing that we desire, is poison, but the problem is we don’t see the suffering that ensues. We only see or remember the transitory happiness that follows. When we buy something, we are happy for a spell, but we don’t see the suffering that follows when we run out of money and when we want to buy more things but cannot buy them.

“Dhamma for the Asking, Dec 9, 2014”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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