Can you destroy desire and will in favor of happiness?

Question

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Have a great day!

Answer 1

The real happiness or esxtacy comes from the 'realisation of the self'.When this stage comes all desires and other pleasures of material gains etc get destroyed by itself.

To achieve this you require the guidance from a Real guru who can accept you as his disciple to impart the knowlege.

Answer 2

Happiness is the very goal of desire, or it can be said that all our desires are focused on attaining happiness of one sort or another, but desire by itself is but a dream if it is not crystyllized and given impetus by the will.

I think what you mean by happiness is innocence, and that is not brought about by desire at all, it is the very nature of those who have either not yet experienced the world or of those who have gone beyond it, which is not to say that they have 'destoyed' desire. The happiness which is attained by desire does not last - a desire arises,the will is joined to it,and is followed by success or failure in attaining the goal, but either way neither the happiness nor the unhappiness lasts.

That which you are refering to must be uncaused for it not to be a temporary effect of a cause,like the 'destruction' of desire.

Answer 3

Destroy 'my' desire and will... ? ... in favor of 'my' happiness ?

Its just not possible. If I 'destroy' my desire and will, it might be in favor of someone else's happiness but certainly if I am not doing what I want to do, I will always... always be cutting down on my happiness.

You cannot be happy if you think you are not doing what you desire.

Answer 4

Desire and will are both internal, therefore controlled by the mind, which can both create and end such things.

Alas, happiness is as well, so it is not necessarily dependent on the desire or will to be destroyed.

Don't worry, be happy!

Answer 5

Yes I can...pray to God seriously

Answer 6

Deep and abiding happiness and joy are the natural result of operating out of the spiritual values of caring, compassion and kindness...while Pleasure is a momentary feeling that comes from fulfilling desires and will.

Answer 7

You can't destroy desire because that is a desire, too. But it's this realization by itself where you see that the desire to end desire because you desire more pleasure when you have no desires is a desire is what ends desire, because "you" can't do anything about desire. It's the logic of the mind itself that stops the mind from working so all that remains is just the awareness and the freedom of what is, and so there is quietness and peace from the scurrying of the mind which brings happiness.

Answer 8

"What is the appropriate behavior for a man or a woman in the midst of this world, where each person is clinging to his piece of debris? What's the proper salutation between people as they pass each other in this flood? "

Buddha

Answer 9

No, i dont think this would be a good idea. To destroy desire and will would probably leave something missing and therefore we wouldn't be truly happy. However, i suppose if you had to live without desire and will, you could do it, whereas it would be miserable to live without any happiness...

Answer 10

Only if you can destroy the Easter Bunny and the Fourth of July in favor of Santa Claus.

Answer 11

The question could be read in two different ways. Firstly, as if it is asking if we could destroy desire and use our will - if the word ‘will’ is read as a verb - in favour of some greater happiness. If this is what you mean then you have pitched desire against happiness, and by doing this simply meaning that desire and happiness are two things diametrically opposed, as happiness could be had if we, by the active use of our will, could control our desires, and therefore live for the purpose of some higher goals in view, as instead or merely seeking to fulfil the wants of our desire we could reach beyond carnal pleasures of our body to find true happiness.

If this is the case, then I would like to suggest first of all that any such notion of happiness is an illusion, an immaculate dream, unreal and unattainable in reality. I firmly believe that we are where we are, both mentally as well as spiritually, that where we are is where desires are rooted, or this means to say that it is by the very reason of our earthly desires rooted in the reality of our world that we are rooted. It is due to our needs and desires that we find this world a friendly place to live in, and also to live through. This is by the very reason of our nature that we cannot be happy without a reasonable fulfilment of our desires - then killing desire, meaning all desires, would only bring upon chaos and sense of dislocation in the mind. We might then be asking as what are we doing here? There would be no challenge, nothing to do battle with, noting to use to improve, and overcome, no way of knowing what we want, and how are we doing.

I therefore think that instead of killing desires the purpose of life is to find happiness in using them for living, as it is commonly said: not living to eat but to eat to live. Desires are instinctive and natural in the mind. They make us strong the way fuel brings an engine to life. When we come in this world we are all but desires and needs, a purely natural beings. We like to be liked and we like to have what we need and what we desire. But as we live grow older and learn the ways of our world we also learn the use of reason in the methods of fulfilling our desires. We learn to master our will but not become a needless and free from desire person but to become a refined person who would can manage to have desire without losing his sense of purpose.

In this sense, desires, especially when they run riots in our mind, or for the purpose of us seeking to know as what good use we can put them, what higher disciplines could we find to alternate upon them, to keep them in check, for without knowing nothing better then the materialistic objects our desires we would stay trapped in the baser realities of life, we would not know as if we find desires taxing and wasting then for what purpose and by what reason we should sacrifice them. I for instance would not be able to fast and pray - as provided the purity of my intention none of these would fulfil any of my desires - and keep sane if do not do this for some good purpose of my faith. And on the other hand if do not have desire then what would be there to sacrifice and use to make life a better life.

But the question could also be read as meaning if we could kill both desire and will, all in favour of happiness. If you mean this by asking then I ask what would you use to kill desire if not will, and once desires is gone then will would still remains, as just per instance. This way we reach a dilemma as will could only be killed by the use of faculties of the mind that do not need will itself as driving force, which of course is our instinctive urges, needs of desires. This in fact is conundrum of a situation as desires can only be circumvent by the use of will applied for some reason or purpose, and will can only be killed by desires, the it cannot be known as how to kill both without using any thing else, for happiness does not kill anything it only replaces sadness and sorrow.

This is not very clear as what exactly you mean by your questions: to kill desire and use will for the purpose of being happy, as living an idealistic, but desire free, life, or to kill both, desire and will, for the sake of some immaculate happiness, or. I person find more sense in the former, where I have elaborated that desire are fuel of life that could also burn and destroy if not handled carefully and rightly purposefully.

Answer 12

Desire and will are an effect of incomplete blind brain activity - desire and will are not the activity of an entity/person/agent existing inside brain/body, they are an effect of conditioning. Existence for every (human) organism is only the effect of existing conditioning - conditioning cannot be stepped out of, cannot be bypassed. In the constant discovery of seeing, sensing now-moment-continuum out there, as the out-there, taking place in here, inside brain as blind activity, desire and will do not take place - there is only out there, as the out-there, taking place as blind brain activity. Desire and will are part of the human condition. True (?) happiness is not another experience - an I, Me, Self, that is happy - happiness is the (momentary) subsidence of incomplete blind brain activity as desire/will.  

Answer 13

Happiness is made through creativity, not destruction.

Answer 14

Happiness need not be antagonistic to desire. After all desire is part of Creation/Nature. In fact, true experience of genuine desire ( not greed, not indulgence ) will eventually lead us the absence of desire, ushering in a higher quality of happiness. Key factor is awareness. Anything done with full/total awareness takes us to the choice- less  awareness, a desire -less state. Moreover, when the mind is given something that is more than the happiness due to satisfaction of desires, it moves away from desire. Meditation, often, gives such an experience of happiness that is a-causal, different from the desire fulfilled happiness.  

Answer 15

I would say NO.

We pretend to be destroyed it. But we (try to) forget  it.

Answer 16

i'm not sure those things can be destroyed...i'm almost positive but these things are so subjective it's hard to be positive. in my own personal case, i know it's impossible! i feel like those things can contribute, as well as not, to the overall feeling of happiness. but happiness is fleeting, and yes you're talking to a seasoned pessimist. i've kinda settled in to my views on happiness. i don't strive for happiness. i do what makes me happy in the hopes that happiness will come to visit more frequently but i think it's unrealistic to wish for happiness all the time. we have to "come down" at some point. the thing i hope for, have desire for, and a strong will for, is to be able to come out of the downside of unhappiness. nice question...

Answer 17

If we look a the lives of those who try, we can easily see the answer for ourselves. Many religious/spiritual practices are in favor of suppressing certain desires in order to achieve some spiritual affirmation or resolution. Its quite common for Catholic and Buddhist monks to practice celibacy or restraint from sexual desires. Although their reasoning's may vary, they both agree that it helps to eliminate suffering. But are desires the reason why we suffer? No, in fact desires are the only reason were able to feel happiness.While suffering comes to us by thinking only of our own desires and not of others.

But what are desires? They're something we feel as a lack or a need within us. And only by filling this lack are we given the sensation of happiness. Have you ever heard the expression "a woman is never happy until her needs are met." Well this applies to us all.

Well perhaps you've heard about this before or maybe this is nothing new. But what we so often overlook is how once our needs are met, once receiving the pleasure/happiness derived from filling them, our desire consequently disappears. Thus eliminating the source where happiness can be received.

So maybe the problem is not with our desires, but with how we receive pleasure from them. We go from one desire to the next, because our happiness is always short lived like a fleeting moment. But what if the true problem was in the way we receive or for whom we receive for? Humanity has looked in all fields and sciences in trying to figure out ways to make us happy, but do we have a science that deals with the nature of receiving it? If I receive for myself and my needs are limited, then so shall the happiness derived from them be limited too. But what If I was able to receive for others? Well below, I've attached a link to a short video to help answer those questions.

Cheers!!

Answer 18

Well, you can't destroy will, because that was our gift from God.  It could make or break our happiness depending on how we use it.  Desire, I think, is a form of temptation.  There's a difference between what we want (desire) and what we need.

Answer 19

Maybe the real question is "Is it necessary to destroy desire and will in order to be happy?"  From what I can tell, the answer is "no."  Thinking that you have to destroy parts of yourself...if it's even possible to do that...in order to be happy could mean that you are operating with less than all of the information about happiness that is available to you.  From what I can tell, being happy is about a decision you get to make about your life each moment that you are alive.  Desire is about wanting things, and whether getting those things will make you happy or not is another thing entirely.  Will is about your freedom to choose.  There is no reason to give up either of these things in order to be happy.  Good luck!

Answer 20

how happiness can even exist without desire and will...??!!

desire is a manifestation of power.

will is a manifestation of freedom.

happiness is the outcome of both.

love

Pluto

Answer 21

I could try, but suicide would be the result. What about security issues, are they not needs demanding satisfaction.