When "desire" is GOOD in Buddhism

The Buddha's [distinction] about "desire" that Western Buddhism gets wrong

The rare beauty of Native American men

(The Midnight Library) July 10, 2026: [Theravada] Buddhism is often described as a tradition that teaches us to eliminate "desire." This is one of the most persistent misreadings in the history of the Western encounter with Eastern philosophy.

The ancient Pali canon makes a precise distinction between two words that, in English, may both be rendered as "desire," but they are almost opposites.

Tanha is compulsive "craving" driven by a sense of lack — whereas chanda is "aspiration" driven by genuine vision.

The Buddha actively encouraged chanda ("desire," "aspiration," "will," "intention") while working to release tanha ("desire," "craving," lit. "thirst").

Professor of Neuroscience Dr. Wolfram Schultz, MD, at Cambridge University, England, documented that the dopamine reward system produces more activation in anticipation (wanting) than in satisfaction (getting) — confirming the structural mechanism of tanha (craving) 2,600 years after the Buddha described it.

The Craving Mind (Dr. Judson Brewer)

Neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr. Judson Brewer, MD, who studies the default mode network at Brown University confirmed in The Craving Mind (2017) that mindful [dispassionate detached attention to what is happening in the present moment without moving towards the pleasant, away from the unpleasant, or being confused/bored by the neutral] observation of craving interrupts the compulsive cycle measurably.

• Tara Brach: Meditation teacher, psychologist, author

Radical Acceptance (Dr. Tara Brach, PhD)

Three Buddhist practices drawn directly from the Pali canon: The R.A.I.N. practice, the aspiration question, and the satiation experiment.

• Recognize, name what is present
• Allow, do not react (chase, act on, suppress, check out, do not crave, resist, or go dull in boredom/confusion), let it be present (radical acceptance)
• Investigate, what does it feel like, where is it located in the body, what is its texture?
• Nurture, bring kindness to the experience, not to the craving itself but to the part of you experiencing it
• "This practice interrupts the automatic cycle of trigger to craving to behavior and creates a gap in which choice becomes possible."
• "Prof. Brewer's research has confirmed that this gap created through mindful [dispassionate, equanimous, attentive, vigilant, wakeful, unbiased] observation of craving measurably reduces the compulsive quality of tanha [craving, addiction, obsession, compulsion] over time."

"The Craving Mind"

(Clear Mountain Monastery Project) The Craving Mind and the Default

Mode [Network]’s Addiction to Self | Dr. Judson Brewer. MD, PhD

• BIO: Dr. Judson Brewer, MD, PhD (aka "Dr. Jud"), is a New York Times best-selling author and pioneering psychiatrist blending cutting-edge neuroscience with 20+ years of Buddhist mindfulness training. A leader in the science of habit change, he is director of research at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center and has held positions at MIT, Yale U., and UMass. Dr. Jud developed app-based programs like Mindshift Recovery, Unwinding Anxiety, Eat Right Now, and Craving to Quit, clinically proven to treat anxiety, addiction, and emotional eating. He’s the author of The Craving Mind, Unwinding Anxiety, and The Hunger Habit, and co-founder of the nonprofit Mindshift Recovery. He is also a collaborator with Clear Mountaineers and medical researchers Dori Rosenberg and Dave Arterburn. More

Beauty is more than skin deep!

If this work matters, support the channel by becoming a member. Support is never expected — but always deeply appreciated. Join here: 👉 @therealmidnightlibrary. For those who resonate with the visual world of The Midnight Library, a curated collection of art and apparel inspired by these themes is available here: 👉 themidnightart.com. For ambient, chant, and cinematic music inspired by ancient traditions, visit The Midnight Library Music: 👉 @themidnightlibrarymusic. For intimate and emotional musical compositions, explore The Romantic Guy: 👉 @theromanticguy. Every story in The Midnight Library opens another door. 🕯️🔑

"The Rewarded Brain"

(Cambridge Philosophical Society) The Rewarded Brain | A V Hill Lecture

Handsome American Indian

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• The Midnight Library @TheRealMidnight...) July 10, 2026; Dr. Wolfram Schultz; Dr. Judson Brewer; Dr. Tara Brach; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Desire can be "good" in Buddhism?

Don't look at my bikini butt, okay, you perverts? It's just flesh for sitting on toilet seats.

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Good (beneficial) "desire"

I want to meditate now to make progress.

Chanda: "intention," "desire," "will." 1. As an ethically neutral psychological term, in the sense of "intention," it is one of those general mental concomitants or factors (cetasika, Table II) taught in the Abhidhamma (the "Dhamma in Ultimate Terms"), the moral quality of which is determined by the character of the volition (cetanā) associated with it.

The Commentary explains it as "a wish to do" (kattu-kamyatā-chanda). If intensified, it acts also as a "predominance condition" (see paccaya 3).

2. As an evil quality it has the meaning of "desire," and is frequently coupled with terms for "sensuality," "greed," and so on, for instance: kāma-cchanda, "sensuous desire," one of the Five Hindrances (nīvarana); chanda-rāga, "lustful desire" (kāma). It is one of the Four Wrong Paths (agati, motivated by greed/chanda, hate/dosa, delusion/moha, or fear/bhaya).

3. As a good quality, it is a wholesome (kusala) will, motive, or zeal (dhamma-chanda) and occurs, for example, in the formula of the Four Right Efforts (padhāna): "The meditator rouses will (chandam janeti)..." If intensified, it becomes one of the Four Roads to Power (iddhipāda).

Bad (harmful) "desire"

Oh, hells yeah, look at that butt!

Tanhā (lit. "thirst"): "craving," the chief root of suffering [behind ignorance], and of the ever-continuing cycle of rebirths [known as samsara].

"What, O meditators, is the origin of suffering (disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, off-kilter woe)? It is this craving that gives rise to ever-fresh rebirths and, bound up with [sensual] pleasure and lust, now here, now there, [continues wandering on, trying] to find ever fresh delight.

"It is [threefold:] sensual craving (kāma-tanhā), craving for [eternal] existence (bhava-tanhā), and craving for non-existence (vibhava-tanhā)'' (D.22).

Tanhā is the eighth link in the formula of the Dependent Origination (paticcasamuppāda). Compare also at the kinds of "truth" (sacca).

Corresponding to the six sense-objects, there are six kinds of craving, craving for:

1. visible objects (sights),
2. sounds (auditory experiences),
3. fragrances (aromas),
4. tastes (flavors),
5. tactile impressions (bodily contact),
6. mental impressions (rūpa-, sadda-, gandha-, rasa-, photthabba-, dhamma-tanhā). (M.9; D.15)

Corresponding to the threefold existence, there are three kinds:

1. craving for sensual existence (kāma-tanhā),
2. craving for fine-material existence (rūpa-tanhā) [in the many celestial/dimensional "heavenly" (sagga, deva-lokas) realms],
3. craving for immaterial existence (arūpa-tanhā) [in the four formless worlds] (D.33).

There are 18 "thought-channels of craving" (tanhā-vicarita) induced internally, and 18 induced externally; and as occurring in past, present, and future, which total 108. (See A. IV, 199; Vibh., Ch. 17 Khuddakavatthu-Vibhanga).

According to Dependent Origination, craving is conditioned by feeling; on this see DN 22 (section on the Second Ennobling Truth).

As for "craving for [continued or eternal] existence" (bhava-tanhā), it is said (A.X.62): "No first beginning of the craving for existence can be perceived, O, meditators, before which it was not and after which it came to be. But it can he perceived that craving for existence has its specific [cause and] condition. I say, O, meditators, that craving for existence also has its condition that feeds it (sāharam) and is not [subsisting] without it. And what is that condition? It is 'ignorance,' one must reply."

Craving for [continued] existence and ignorance are called "the outstanding causes that lead to happy and unhappy destinies (courses of existence)." (See The Path of Purification, Vis.M. XVII, 36-42).

The most frequent synonyms of tanhā are rāga ("lust," "greed," "passion") and lobha ("greed"). See the "roots" of good and evil, the skillful and the unskillful, at mūla).

• Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary via palikanon.com (chanda and tanhā) edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Why 'meditation' feels hard (Matthieu Ricard)

(Study Buddhism) Why "meditation" [striving, straining, struggling to get into absorption] feels so hard (and what to do about it) | [Western scientist and Vajrayana Buddhist lama] Ven. Matthieu Ricard [known as "the happiest person in the world"*]. "There is no Samsara 2.0."

Who is he?

Sure, I'm happy, but the happiest?

Matthieu Ricard (French matjø ʁikaʁ, Nepali माथ्यु रिका, born Feb. 15, 1946) is a French Nepalese writer, photographer, translator, and Buddhist monk (lama) who resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal.

Dr. Matthieu Ricard grew up among the personalities and ideas of French intellectual circles. He received a PhD degree in molecular genetics from the Pasteur Institute in 1972.

He then decided to avoid a common scientific career and instead did the daring thing and took up the practice of Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana Bon), living mainly in the Himalayas.

Matthieu Ricard is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East with Karuna-Shechen, the non-profit organization he co-founded in 2000 with Rabjam Rinpoche.

Since 1989, he has acted as the French interpreter for the 14th Dalai Lama. Since 2010, he has been traveling and giving a series of talks with and assisting in teachings by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the incarnation of Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche....

*Matthieu Ricard has been called the "happiest person in the world" [4, 5]. Why?

It is because Matthieu Ricard was a volunteer subject in a study performed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on happiness. He scored significantly above the average of hundreds of volunteers [4].

Matthieu Ricard, however, has called the label "absurd" and untrue [6, 7]. More

Vajrapani Bodhisattva: The Thunderbolt

(Buddha's Wisdom) VAJRAPANI: The Thunderbolt Bodhisattva who challenged Lord Shiva himself | Om Vajrapani Hum

Fierce protective spirit being

Vajrapani (Sanskrit Vajrapāṇi, Pali Vajirapāṇi, "holder of the thunderbolt," lit. meaning, "Vajra in [one's] hand") is one of the earliest-appearing bodhisattva in various sub-schools of Mahayana Buddhism.

He is alleged to be the protector and guide of the historical Buddha Gautama and rose to symbolize the Buddha's power.

Vajrapāni is also called Chana Dorje and Chador and extensively represented in Buddhist iconography as one of the earliest three protective deities or bodhisattvas surrounding the Buddha. Each of them symbolizes one of the Buddha's virtues... More

• Vajrapani Bodhisattva
• Vajrapani thangka (Dharma Treasures)

Abuse of the Buddhist term "mindfulness"

(Natasha Yehenara) Psychology's corporate takeover of Buddhist mindfulness (sati)

• "Mindfulness" defined by Ven. Analayo Bhikkhu
• The field of psychology appropriated (hijacked) the Buddhist term "mindfulness" (originally sati but now just "awareness" or "paying attention")
• Anyone who thinks it was a commonplace practice in ancient India during the time of the Buddha should look up the Hindu definition of sati, which reveals it used to mean throwing a wife on the pyre when her husband died 😲
• The great work of Jon Kabbat-Zin to help therapists led to the unexpected disconnection of the practice with anything, as if it could be a standalone endeavor
• "Bare attention" is a component of sati, but it must be coupled with dispassionate (unbiased) looking on, free of greed, hatred, and delusion (wanting, aversion, and confusion)
• What is one to be mindful of to advance to insight, realization, and awakening? The Buddha pointed at four things: body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects. What does this mean? Psychology cannot tell us, but the Dhamma can
• Who needs Dhamma when we have a corporate bottom line to advance, productivity to raise, and mental health symptoms to abate?
• Why call it "mindfulness," Psychology? Why not pick a new name for what you've turned this into?

Ego (buddhism podcast) The Buddha didn't teach us only to be "present." He taught us to remember (recollection, memory, bearing in mind, the faculty of sati)

On the road to Berkeley like Benji (The Graduate)

Personally, in college at UC Berkeley many years ago, I took a "Buddhist Psychology" course in the department and was so excited to finally be able to learn what "cognition" meant and what the Buddha had to say about all these psychological things. Our assigned textbook, written by a psychologist, was called Mindfulness. "All right," I thought, "I'm finally going to advance in my practice and being in college is going to help me. Imagine my surprise when, as I read, I did not recognize what was being called "mindfulness." It did not align with all the translated ancient texts I had read and was continuing to read from the Buddhist Publication Society and the Pali Text Society. A few years in the future I would even visit BPS Editor Bhikkhu Bodhi in Kandy, Sri Lanka, to ask him about all this.

The Art and Science of Mindfulness

Not yet having him as a direct resource, except through his translations and BPS newsletter messages, I asked my professor in class about how I was left perplexed by reading our textbook. She looked at me and shrugged, "Of course! This "mindfulness" isn't the Buddha's mindfulness. It is psychology's," she explained. I looked around and many students were nodding their heads in agreement. "There are two mindfulnesses?!" I balked. "There are now" was the implicit answer. "Does Berkeley know about this? Why is this class called Buddhist psychology if all we're going to talk about is Western psychology?" She winked because she was subverting the system and introducing Buddhist ideas back into class, but we had to know that the new mindfulness had been taken, changed, and applied in rigorous scientific ways to the behavioral sciences, therapy, counseling, and the mental health field. Sure, it wasn't the Buddha's mindfulness, but that's because it had to be stripped of all spirituality and/or religiosity to get by the gatekeepers of the university system. What a gyp.

• The Art and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating Mindfulness Into Psychology and the Helping Professions (Shauna L, Shapiro, Linda E. Carlson
• Amazon.com: psychology mindfulness textbooks

The Empty Nature of All Things

(Buddhism Podcast) The empty nature of all things: Buddhist philosophy on reality

The Suñña Sutta [15] ("Discourse on Emptiness"), part of the Pāli canon, relates that the monk Ānanda, the Buddha's attendant, asked:

"Venerable sir, it is said that the world is 'empty,' the world is empty. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?"

The Buddha replied, "In so far as it is empty of a self or of anything that belongs to a self. So it is said, Ānanda, that the world is empty." More

We hate boring politics | death metal

Help preserve the Jewish-Zionist genocide: The Nakba, Part II: Gaza

It's blood libel to say we did what we did!

(Secular Talk) Israeli Crime Minister Bibi's Israel panics as an archive of Israel's genocide through a website is established to document all of homicidal Zionist Ashkenazi Israel's atrocities, extermination campaigns, media blackouts, murdering of journalists, war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and confirmed genocide | The Kyle Kulinski Show

• Accountability Archive 🟢🔴⚫ (@archivegenocide) / X
• Archive Israel's Gaza War Crimes (dropsitenews.com)
• Archiving in a Time of Genocide | Institute for Palestine Studies

(The Daily Show) Jordan Klepper

Jewish Israel hates and attacks Christians

(Kim Iversen) Bibi lies about the danger to Christians in the "Holy Land"/Occupied Israel

Hillary Clinton defends Trump's Zionism

(Katie Halper) Clinton defends genocide (Dennis Kucinich/S.M. Marandi)

Enough politics, what about death metal?

TOP STORY: (Garza Podcast) Rap feuds? Who needs 'em? Old and new Cannibal Corpse singers feud but OG Chris Barnes tries to make peace with newbie George Corpsegrinder | SIX FEET UNDER

• Who's better vocalist for Cannibal Corpse, Chris Barns or George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher?

(Eastonv2000) Chris Barnes vs. George Fisher! "Hammer Smashed

Face" live in concert | live comparison (2013)

(Shishiwakamaru) Chris Barnes' Six Feet Under "No Warning Shot" live

Jon Stewart speaks at 9/11 tribunal

The Buddhist Dark Night of the 'Soul'

(Buddha's Wisdom) Breakdown or breakthrough.

• Catholic/Christian mystics understand, “To get your breakthrough, sometimes God needs to break you.”
• Dark Night of the Soul: What it is and how to move through it

Dark Night of the Soul

The Dark Night of the Soul (Spanish La noche oscura del alma) is a phase of passive purification in the mystical development of an individual's spirit, according to the 16th-century Spanish mystic and Catholic poet St. John of the Cross.

St. John describes the concept in his treatise Dark Night (Noche Oscura), commenting on his poem of the same name.

John of the Cross, 1656

It follows after the second phase, the illumination in which God's presence is felt, but this presence is not yet stable.

The author himself did not give any title to his poem, which together with this commentary and the Ascent of Mount Carmel (Subida del Monte Carmelo) forms a treatise on the active and passive purification of the senses and the spirit, leading to mystical union [1] or "yoga" through samadhi.

El Greco "View of Toledo" (Google Art Project)

In modern times, the phrase "dark night of the soul" has become a popular phrase to describe a crisis of faith or a difficult and painful period in one's life.

The poem

Dating and subject: The poem of St. John of the Cross, in eight stanzas of five lines each, narrates the journey of the individual (soul, personality, persona, ego, self, spirit) to mystical union with God or the Godhead (Brahman). More

The Dark Night of the Soul

By St. John of the Cross

Dark Night of the Soul (by ogipavkovic on DeviantArt)

I. In a dark night,

With anxious love inflamed,

O, happy lot!

Forth unobserved I went,

My house being now at rest.

II. In darkness and in safety,

By the secret ladder, disguised,

O, happy lot!

In darkness and concealment,

My house being now at rest.

III. In that happy night,

In secret, seen of none,

Seeing nought myself,

Without other light or guide

Save that which in my heart was burning.

IV. That light guided me

More surely than the noonday sun

To the place where He was waiting for me,

Whom I knew well,

And where none appeared.

V. O, guiding night;

O, night more lovely than the dawn;

O, night that hast united

The lover with His beloved,

And changed her into her love.

VI. On my flowery bosom,

Kept whole for Him alone,

There He reposed and slept;

And I cherished Him, and the waving

Of the cedars fanned Him.

VII. As His hair floated in the breeze

That from the turret blew,

He struck me on the neck

With His gentle hand,

And all sensation left me.

VIII. I continued in oblivion lost,

My head was resting on my love;

Lost to all things and myself,

And, amid the lilies forgotten,

Threw all my cares away. Source

• The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Douglas Adams)

Krishnamurti: Don't become enlightened

(Krishnamurti Foundation Trust) Becoming enlightened is a horrible idea | Krishnamurti

• 

  Syncretism: Theosophy

  While sounding like a madman at first, the great Krishnamurti actually has a point to make about "efforting," muscling, struggling, and striving to gain or win enlightenment. Buddhist awakening (bodhi) is far more about letting go of delusion, confusion, and illusion and instead gently cultivating allowing, radical acceptance of what is, and dispassionate (disinterested, unbiased) viewing like some kind of Taoist, being the watcher rather than the striver or go-getter.

The Great World Teacher or Jiddu?

Of course, Krishnamurti was more a Hindu than a Buddhist, having escaped the clutches of the Western Theosophists who found him, saw his potential, raised and nurtured their new Messiah (Maitreya) in hopes that he would become a "Buddha" or "World Teacher" for our time (like the promised Buddha Boy decades later).

But he burned them and instead taught a whole kind of Zen nondoing, nothing special, there's nothing to achieve approach to spirituality and spiritual (un)accomplishments. The Theosophists were not happy, so Krishnamurti went off on his own, not aligning himself with any religion but sort of incorporating them all into a syncretism.

The gymnosophist Mahavira

He's a subtle speaker and thinker, along the lines of Bhagwan Shree Rajnessh (Osho) and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, both alleged to be frauds immersed in sex and money scandals. We would not want to misrepresent Krishnamurti's views, if he holds any, as he can quite well speak for himself. Like the great Mahavira (Vardhamāna, the founder of Jainism, called the Nigantha Nattaputta in Buddhist texts), Krishnamurti must have some good qualities that he is still remembered and listened to.

What ever happened to the Hare Krishnas?

(ABC Australia) What happened to Hare Krishnas? | Compass | ABC Australia

• Leader: A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
• International Society for Krishna Consciousness
• Krishnamurti Foundation Trust (video); ABC Australia; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Driving Under the Influence (of Shrooms)

Tales from the Trip (Comedy Central)

Phish concert at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, Wisconsin, July 2003, lights by Chris Kuroda

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(Animated) Road-tripping on shrooms with my family (featuring Rosemary "Rosebud" Baker) | Tales from the Trip Pothead culture, marijuana addiction, glassblowing major, Phish as white gypsies reliving the glory of the Grateful Dead, traveling around the country so people can get high and enjoy their long jams.

• What are "magic mushrooms"? Psilocybin

Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys with Sahil

Rosemary "Rosebud" Baker (born March 16, 1985) is an American comedian, actress, and writer. Based in New York City, she is known for her dark humor based on personal and often satirical stories. In 2010, she worked as an actress in independent films, non-union TV projects, and off-Broadway. She later began appearing in a recurring role on the Hulu series Life & Beth. In 2013, she received praise for her performance in the critically acclaimed independent film Turnabout. Baker started her career in stand-up in 2014 by performing at open mics throughout NYC. In 2021, her debut comedy special, Whiskey Fists, premiered on Comedy Central. She became a writer for the HBO Max television series That Damn Michael Che in 2020 and a writer for Saturday Night Live from 2022 to 2025. Her second comedy special, The Mother Lode, was released on Netflix on Feb. 18, 2025. More

Fun and spirituality with the poet Rumi

(Daughter of Iran) Thinking is an Ego Trap: Thought will not solve our problems

(Shams of Tabrez) Life-Changing Rumi Poems (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Hearts)

Tomb Shrine of Rumi in Konya, Raulana Jelaledin Muhammad Rumi (wikipedia)

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Rumi 'loves' disciple Chelebi

The History of Iran, formerly Persia, is rich and wondrous. Among the many strongest features of Cyrus the Great's powerful (Achaemenid) Empire is its enduring love of poetry. One need only to think of one of the world's greatest poets, Rumi (aka Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī).

Zionist Israelis and American imperialists, who together are trying to establish a Western beachhead in the center of the Middle East and calling it "Greater Israel," may hate Iran, but we love it and Iranians, the original Aryans.

Rumi's darkest lesson: How we become our own worst enemy: Jewish king

The Buddha's mothers (sisters Queen Maya and Queen Prajapati), according to maverick Indian historian Dr. Ranajit Pal, were Aryan-Iranians from a region now known as Sistan-Baluchistan, south of Buddhist Afghanistan, in ancient Gandhara (Indo-Scythia of the Sakas/Shakyas), the original Kapilavastu, which was not in Nepal as we are told. (See Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander).

(Shams of Tabrez) Rumi's secret of form and meaning (namarupa)

Mawlana ("Rumi") meeting Shams-i Tabrizi (Cāmiʿü’s-siyer of
Muhammed Tahir, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Istanbul)

Whirling dervishes and Lala
visit Rumi's tomb in 1580

The Buddha's father, Scythian King or Tribal Chieftain Suddhodana, was a Central Asian from Kabul and Bamiyan, it would seem. But even if the historical Buddha and his biological parents bore no relation to the region, modern Iran is still a magnificent ancient society and a power to reckon with in the region.

It is a horror and a travesty that the CIA, NSA, NSC, Mossad, Israel, UK, TC, and USA meddle in it so much since at least the time of the Shah of Iran and U.S. puppet dictator gone rogue Saddam Hussein.

Mad at Iran, I quit the Olympic team

(AJ+) Why I quit Iran's Olympic team - but still love my country very much