What is Desire and Why do we Desire? @ Royal Oak

Please arrive at 6:45pm to order your drinks/food so that we can start the event at 7pm with minimum interruption. Thank you.

Desire is omnipresent; it drives what we buy, what we chase, how we feel, who we love, who we admire, and even how we see ourselves; but what is desire? Why do we have them? Where do our desires come from? How do our desires affect our actions, mind, our free will, our morality? Is it a source of wisdom—or suffering? Should we embrace it or deny it?

Socrates defines desire as us striving for something that is perceived as good even if that perception is mistaken. He believes that we desire what is good; this doesn’t mean we may know what is good, but that we desire what we believe shall lead to our benefit or happiness. Socrates often discusses Eros (desire) in the context of love and the pursuit of beauty and the good. He believes that by examining our desires and beliefs, we shall move toward a better understanding of ourselves and the world.

Buddhism sees desire as the root of suffering; but it is not always negative. For example, we can desire to have peace, for liberation, for compassion. So, desire is both the cause of suffering and the motivation for something good. Buddhism doesn’t ask us to destroy desire. It asks us to understand it, recognize its impermanence, and stop clinging to it as if our happiness depends on obtaining what we want. As the Zen saying goes, Desire is a teacher: When we immerse ourselves in it without clinging, it can show us where we’re not free.

Rene Girard was a French American philosopher/anthropologist with a very different take on desire. His central idea, known as mimetic theory, argues that human desire is fundamentally imitative, i.e we learn to desire what others desire. This imitation leads to rivalry and conflict, which societies often resolve through a scapegoating mechanism, where a victim is blamed and expelled to restore unity. We shall discuss Rene’s theory on the second part of our evening.

But as in most of our discussions, the first order of discussion will be, what does desire mean to you?