Do you regard “desires” as the negative things? I had had a negative impression against desires before. Now, I don’t think so at all. I am not a Buddhist. But a Buddhist monk whom I met at a temple in Japan taught me that desires were not necessarily bad. The monk said to me, “List 100 desires”. I started to list my desires such as “I want to go to Hawaii”, “I want to go to Disneyland”, “I want to have a cute dog” and “I want to do scuba diving under the beautiful ocean” and so on. These were the desires for my own happiness. Then, I kept listing my desires such as “May my mom and dad live long”, “May my sister find her favourite job”, “May my brother find a kind girl friend next time” and so on. These were the desires for others’ happiness. Then I kept listing and listing my desires until I could not list my desires any more. I could not list even 30 desires. The last desire that I listed was “world peace!”. The monk asked me “Do you still think desires are totally bad?”.
Wow!!! Of course, the desires include the personal selfish ones. We start listing our own desires. But then, we start listing the desires that represent wishes of others. The desires can be charitable. Ultimately, we start listing the desires that represent the wishes of all human beings all over the world. Now, I am curious to know my 100th desire!!!
