Ep. 275 – Desire, Love, and Spiritual Passion

Feb 6, 2025

Dive into the intriguing world of desire and love as concepts are explored through Buddhist wisdom. Discover how mindfulness can stabilize the heart and help navigate life's distractions. The discussion highlights the distinction between love and desire, shedding light on how to cultivate true connection. Listeners are invited to reflect on their personal motivations, while poignant stories illustrate the transformative power of compassion. The journey encourages embracing presence and simplicity in our relationships and spiritual practices.

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ADVICE

Study Your Desires

Study your desires and understand where they lead you.
Reflect on the path your desires take you, not just the speed.

INSIGHT

Chanda: Spiritual Passion

Chanda, spiritual passion or the desire for awakening, can be a powerful force.
However, this same intensity can fuel desires for power and control, masking underlying insecurities.

ANECDOTE

Feeding the Hungry Heart

Janine Roth's work highlights how we often displace our true desires with substitutes like food.
This displacement can lead to addiction and prevents us from addressing the root cause of our longings.

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Love is in the air, as Jack explores the nature of desire, relationships, and spiritual passion—offering wisdom on stabilizing the heart, navigating distractions, and awakening to the timeless and sacred.

Learn How to Thrive in Love: Buddhist Secrets to Transform Your Relationships with Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman beginning Feb 17 – join anytime!

“If you know what it’s like to really fall in love with someone, then you can begin to sense what it means to bring the full presence of attention to your life.” – Jack Kornfield

In this episode, Jack mindfully explores:

The Buddha on mindfulness and awareness
Stabilizing the heart, mind, and body in the present
Overcoming distractions and difficult moods
Being aware of desires arising and passing
Chanda – spiritual passion, the desire for awakening
The connection between power, insecurity, and fear
How to stop feeding the hungry heart in unskillful ways
The difference between desire and love
Relationship, marriage, and staying in love
A moving love story from Thich Nhat Hanh
Reclaiming our humanity and animal nature
Reawakening mystery, gratitude, awe
Touching that which is timeless and sacred
Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of infinite compassion
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and living your fullness
Noticing what tempts you away during meditation

“What direction do our personal desires take us? It’s good to study them. As my teacher Ajahn Chah said, ‘It may be a very fast car, but you ought to look at what road you’re going down and which way it’s headed.'” – Jack Kornfield

“Perhaps what we most deeply desire is immensely simple—to reclaim our humanity, our animal nature that Jung talked about, the wondrous senses, the sense of the spirit of awe, the remembering, the reawakening of that sense of gratitude and mystery for life.” – Jack Kornfield

This Dharma Talk recorded on 9/28/1992 at Spirit Rock Meditation Center was originally published on DharmaSeed.

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