Bear with me while I digress now and then from life in Chili - I might use the blog to write a few things about how growing up in Chili shaped my thinking.
Sometimes when people hear the Zen goal of ridding themselves of "wants" people react (especially the more goal-oriented ones) by saying that it doesn't make sense not to have any ambition in life and other such things. I think the message is often lost in the loose way the words like "wants", "goals", "desires", "ambitions" are interchanged in thinking about this concept. For me the message has mostly to do with "needs". It is one thing to want to achieve a goal in life.... it is quite another to need any one thing to make ourselves at peace in the world. Goals are fine, but what stresses us and makes us suffer is when those goals turn into obsessions or needs without which we feel lost or sad or non-contributing.
By releasing ourselves from needs we can more easily accept and appreciate what it is we already have.
What is advertising? Creating wants - that's okay, just don't let them become needs. I don't need a Corvette even though I'd like to have one. Wanting can be fun, but needing isn't.
The commandments used an interesting term...do not covet....don't make it a need. Sure, your neighbor has a cool TV and it would be nice to have such a thing.....but don't covet it, don't turn it into a need because then life is out of balance.
The Beatles sing "I Want You...I want you so bad it's driving me mad". That's okay, just don't let it become a need because then someone is liable to get hurt.
Wanting is part of life, needing is part of suffering, also part of life, but something some strive to lessen.
As the saying goes: It's not about having what you want but wanting what you have.
Hasta luego.
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