Good Desire vs. Bad Desire (Ajahn Chah)

Ajahn Chah (ajahnchah.org) via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Return to the forest (Thai Forest Tradition)

Our way of [Theravada Buddhist Thai Forest Tradition] practice is looking closely at things and making them clear.

We’re persistent and constant, yet not rushed or hurried. Neither are we too slow.

It’s a matter of gradually feeling our way and bringing it together. However, all of this bringing together is working towards something. There is a point to our practice.

There's ordinary craving and then there's addiction.

For most of us, when we first start to practice, it’s nothing other than desire [craving to experience bliss, absorption, knowledge, freedom, health, clarity, alleviation from suffering of all kinds].

We start to practice because of wanting. At this stage our wanting is wanting in the wrong way. That is, it’s deluded.

It’s wanting mixed with wrong understanding.

Ahhh, bliss is much better than desire.

If wanting is NOT mixed with wrong understanding like this, we say that it’s wanting with wisdom (paññā). It’s not deluded: It’s wanting with right understanding.

In a case like this, we say that it’s due to a person’s pāramī (perfections) or past karmic accumulations.

However, this isn’t the case with everyone. Some people don’t want to have desire, or they want to not have desires, because they think that our practice is directed at not wanting.

However, if there is no desire, then there’s no way of practice.