Desire
Desire is the closest thing there is to magic. Nothing else changes the world so powerfully, so quickly. Nothing else builds empires or families or great works of art. Nothing else rearranges my perception so fully, making some things salient and others basically invisible. Even in spiritual lineages dedicated to ending desire entirely, the startin... See more
River Kenna • Varieties of Desirous Experience
Stuart Evans added 2mo
Desire is actually magic, as far as I've seen. I can't count how many times I've watched people hone and shape and pour time and energy into their desires, only to have that desire appear in their life through weird, non-linear, frankly baffling ways — ways that include but don’t easily reduce to the work they’ve put in. The stream of creation seem... See more
Varieties of Desirous Experience
Stuart Evans added 2mo
Stuart Evans added 2mo
What is your relationship to objects and their connection with desire?
lili added 1y
“The modern man is always claiming a self-sufficiency which he is unable to achieve. He constantly compares himself with other people and, afraid that they might be superior, he secretly copies their manners and borrows their desires.”
Leo Nasskau • René Girard, mimetic desire, and society's biggest rat race
Erikc Perez-Perez added 1y
What impresses you? Why? Money? Cars? Fitness? Abilities? Intelligence? Influence? I often find myself feeling impressed by something and desiring it, and have worked to build in a self check on this - why am I feeling this? Is it an authentic feeling I should embrace and nurse - inspiration? Or is it a feeling instilled by consumerism that I shoul... See more
Erikc Perez-Perez added 1y
Expected elation. Society has built a world that defines what's appealing and what's not. What success should look like. I spent years chasing this idea, and achieved it. And never felt truly happy. Why? It seems so obvious, there are a million songs and movies about how wealth and fame aren't the end all be all for human states. Yet we pursue it a... See more
Erikc Perez-Perez added 1y
The idea of desire bombardment - you want to want -
Erikc Perez-Perez added 1y
The idea of appearing to do something - you get the same level of satisfaction if you know that someone believes you’re accomplishing something as you do from actually accomplishing something and so it’s easy to get trapped in that loop and so you never get there because you’re too busy sharing that you’re getting somewhere instead of actually doin... See more
Erikc Perez-Perez added 1y
So are there ‘authentic’ desires? One of the roots of the word authentic is ‘author’. Are any of us authors of our own desires? Yes, we can be. You might not be the sole author of your desires, but you can certainly take ownership and put your mark of authorship on them through your creative freedom.
Aeon • How to Know What You Really Want | Psyche Guides
Stuart Evans added 1y