The Creator of our World
There are few things that have created as much suffering for us than the religious persecution of individual desire.
Controlling our natural instincts is a sure way of controlling people. It makes us toxically ashamed for what is supremely natural and innocent.
Desire is divine! It is blessed. It arises from the same, deep, inner place as does faith, hope, charity, love and kindness and it is just as pure. This is also the place from which all creativity and innovation arises from. Yet, in the interest of control, it has been given a very bad reputation and connotation.
I have long been a rebel in the religious community for embracing desire as natural as the so-called virtues and just as pure.
Nothing has happened in human history that did not start with desire... including all us humans. In fact, the desire to grow, expand, evolve, improve, build, invent is there before even the idea of what to improve or invent occurs to us.
When I was a committed composer and wrote music all the time, before any piece of music actually happened, I first had a feeling and then an uncontrollable desire to sit down at the piano. Without fail, after I did, some piece of music (or at least an idea for a piece) came into my head and then out of my fingers. The desire was there first... every time. I have living (albeit anecdotal) proof that desire precedes creation.
Some of my darkest times on my spiritual life was when I got infected by that common (and I now see ridiculous) notion that some desires were OK but others not and there was some external authority that was going to make the judgement as to which was which.
This led to a lot of suffering with self-doubt and second guessing, even though, for the life of me, I could not find any reasonable criteria for deciding if any desire was a "good one" or a "bad one." I finally threw up my hands an abandoned the whole way of thinking. They are all essentially good. In fact, they are divine.
I finally realized that the "bad desires" (so called) were in fact, good desires that had been so suppressed that they got squeezed out of shape and came out sideways. That is like blaming the ball because you keep throwing it to the opposite team.
Look at everything you have ever done in your life and see for yourself. It all started with a desire to do it. Sometimes it was just a desire to do something and later found what it was you desired.
To accept desire as divine, is to become free of millennia of religious dogma and all the guilt and shame that go with it. You and your desires are pure, innocent and valuable. In fact, they are purity itself and are made to be enjoyed and pursued.
Who knows what gifts, for you to both give and receive, are waiting for you in the realm of your unrecognized desires. It could be you who takes us all to the next level. Try it and find out for yourself just how far you can go when you are responsive to your inner leadings.
GP offers dozens of workshops, meditations and courses on his learning platform, The OM School