01
Desire is the desire to achieve a certain purpose generated by the nature of living things, and desire has no distinction between good and evil, the key lies in how to control it.
Each of us has desires, and although they are hidden deep in our hearts, they always influence our choices.
The overinflation of desire is the enemy of happiness, so the contented are always happy. Surveys show that not being compared to others brings 5 times more happiness than high income.
Whether it is Taoism, Confucianism, bingjia, or Dharma and Zonghengjia, they all pay attention to the study of "human desire". "Human desire" is the beginning of all human activity, and grasping this source that dominates everything will lead to endless energy.
Man is the product of desire, and life is the continuation of desire.
Psychology has another way of saying "desire", called "need".
Psychology: Human needs are unmet, and when a need is met, new needs are generated.
Hitler
Hitler, a war maniac, dreamed of conquering the world and launching the Second World War, causing a deep disaster to mankind, and finally under the joint attack of the Soviet Union and the Allies, he was defeated and committed suicide by drinking bullets.
What people ultimately love is their own desires, not what they want. - Nietzsche, The Other Side of Good and Evil
02
Life is only a few decades, don't leave yourself any regrets, laugh when you want to laugh, cry when you want to cry, love when you should love, needlessly suppress yourself, there are two kinds of bitterness in life, one is that desire is not satisfied, and the other is that it is satisfied. — Plato
And Kan
One of the powerful ministers of Chinese history, he has held many positions and is the most asset-rich official in the history of the Qing Dynasty. British Envoy Macartney greatly appreciated Hezhen's diplomatic approach.
When He Yan was first an official, he was shrewd and strong, and for the sake of clean government, he consolidated his position through the Li Shiyao case. The Qianlong Emperor favored him and married his young daughter, the Tenth Princess, to FengSheng Yinde, the eldest son of Hezhen, making Hezhen not only powerful, but also a relative of the emperor.
With the growth of power, his selfish desires also expanded day by day, taking advantage of his position to form parties for personal gain, amassing money, and using bribery, persecution, intimidation, violence, kidnapping, and other means to co-opt local forces and attack political opponents.
In addition, He yan also personally operated industry and commerce, opened seventy-five pawnshops, set up more than 300 large and small silver trumpets, and had commercial contacts with the British East India Company and the Thirteen Lines of Guangdong. He became the "king of corrupt officials" and "the king of corruption" that posterity claimed to be the king of power and the enemy of the country.
He was also the richest man in the world in the 18th century, and was later killed by the Jiaqing Emperor.
This sentence of Cai Gen Tan explains how to restrain in the face of desire.
After a thought, he avoided the Divine Bow Ghost Arrow; the dust was not stained, and the fang unlocked the earth net. - "Cai Gen Tan Xiu Province"
Open guns are easy to hide, and dark arrows are difficult to defend. Many times, staying calm is the best way to control desires. At this time, even if something is seducing you to take the first step of greed, as long as you understand your boundaries and what your heart wants, you can be as immovable as a mountain.
To keep the bottom line, what kind of temptation, as long as you don't start, naturally there will be no trouble. And once the zero is broken, the corresponding countless times will follow, completely submerging the heart.
Money hurts people, but money also saves people. We must make good use of money to save people, and not be used by money. Rich and powerful people are immeasurably troubled if they do not know how to restrain their desires; if they do not look down on fame and fortune, their spiritual life is bound to be empty, helpless, and suffering immeasurable.
03
The greatest temptation for us at the moment is materialism. Houses, cars or children's school quality, in the final analysis, can not escape this two words.
In this regard, the Cai Gen Tan also said earlier: only by securing the path of materialism can we open the door of morality; only by relaxing the shoulders of the world can we pick up the burden of the sages. - "Cai Gen Tan Xiu Province"
Control our desires, and never let everything that life does not bring about death become a cause that prevents us from understanding morality or becoming sages.
The pursuit of a better and happier life is worthy of affirmation, but do not blindly compare, just stop at the right time.
04
The Buddha said that the mirror is not a platform, there is nothing in the original, where to stir up dust. Everything is illusory.
Washington
Washington led the American people to victory in the Civil War, and on September 3, 1783, Britain officially recognized American independence. On November 2, Washington delivered a farewell speech to the soldiers who had followed him for many years, in which he publicly expressed his fervent desire to retire from the army and live a civilian life: "The curtain of separation will soon be drawn, and he will retire from the stage of history forever." ”
Two days later, Washington left New York Harbor by boat. On December 23, Washington resigned all public office to the Continental Congress, personally handed over the letter of appointment of the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, officially demobilized and returned to the field, and returned to his hometown of Vernon Hill, where he missed day and night.
Washington's decision was a great surprise, which also reflected his gentlemanly style of indifferent fame and fortune, which was praised and admired by posterity.
05
How to control desire?
Psychologists believe that the key to quickly controlling desire is to establish a stable connection with the brain, and it is recommended to start from three perspectives.
Make good use of your own free thoughts
We know that a person's attention span is limited and that when attention is highly focused, there will still be free thinking. At this time, we must make good use of this free thought.
For example, when we want to eat a meal, we can immediately move out of our free minds and turn our attention to something else, so that the food in our brains is replaced by something else.
Establish self-reward and punishment mechanisms
Neuropsychologists have found that when the human body emits signals to the brain not to bow to desire, the human body and the brain are more difficult to maintain, but if some external constraints and reward stimuli are added, it will be easier to achieve.
If there are two people who want to go to graduate school, one is sullen to supervise themselves, without external interference; the other has a supervisor, who will make various plans for him according to the schedule, supervise the regular examination for him, and adjust in time during the bottleneck period, and it turns out that the latter has achieved far greater results than the former.
It can be seen that with the intervention of the external reward and punishment system, controlling desire will be more effective with half the effort.
Develop good habits of self-discipline
Many people's failures are not inferior to others, but because they are not self-disciplined and self-controlled. And self-control requires self-control.
When people use self-control, the prefrontal cortex of the brain will fall into a fairly active situation, and when we often use self-control to stimulate the prefrontal lobe, it will make the brain memory slowly form a habit. This is a perfect loop.