Desire and Attachment

<p>Today we dive deeper into how desire fits into our life when we want to continue to evolve spiritually and act in ways that are compassionate to the earth and to others.</p><p>A lot of people think of desire as this thing that we <i>develop</i>… but really, we have desire wired into us as humans.</p><p>The essence of what Buddhism offers and teaches through mindfulness, lovingkindness, and compassion, is <strong>freedom </strong>of the heart. Not “needing” things, not being attached to things. But rather <i>inner </i>freedom. As a result, desire and attachment are often misunderstood.</p><p>And all the practices that I’ve learned and that I teach here and in Freedom School  - all the ways that we work with our minds - are to invite that sense of true inner and outer freedom. To cultivate a release from fear, a release from all the entanglements of life.</p><p>Often the root of so much suffering is resisting what IS because we are attached to how we’d <strong>rather </strong>have it be.</p><p>So where do desire and attachment fit in when <strong>freedom </strong>is our goal?</p><p>One important thing to remember is that freedom is not a freedom to <strong>remove </strong>ourselves from the world, but to actually be <strong>more </strong>fully present and free to know, to respond, to be open to life, and to find a wholeness in each moment.</p><p>And the amazing thing is that when you meet people who <strong>have </strong>this sense of freedom, it's <strong>contagious</strong>. You can feel it in some way. You can tell when they walk in the room. You’re like, “I want me somma that!”</p><p>Here WE are in this <strong>human</strong> incarnation. And need and desire is a real thing.</p><p>We need money for rent, and we need food, and job security, and health insurance, and a sense of belonging, right?</p><p>And yet desire also can be a weight, an entanglement, and a cause of suffering.</p><p>So how do we deal with desire in our life? Especially because it's not just the desires we have for external things, but we ca