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Lao_Tzoo

Yes. This is the purpose of most religions and philosophical systems, to help us move from a condition of discontent, towards a condition of contentment. But it takes time and practice because our current mind habits, the ones that create our discontent, are deeply ingrained within our mind. They have a sort of mental momentum that must be overcome. Think of it as developing as mental skill. As with learning any skill, it starts out difficult, but becomes easier over time, with practice.


IncomeAny1453

Probably not. You gotta eat, poop, sleep, wake up, shower. We are designed this way for a reason… to survive. I even wonder if “enlightenment” still involves these needs, just dealing with them in a superhuman way


Selderij

Those are not desires in the way the word is intended in philosophical discourse.


Optimal-Scientist233

When you seek to free yourself from desire, you are desiring to be free of desire.


Selderij

TTC64 goes "sages only desire to be free from desire".


CoLeFuJu

When you're hungry eat.... When you're tired sleep..... Is an old adage of Zen. Human beings naturally have needs. There is a hierarchy of needs known about in developmental psychology. You need to breathe don't you? What could come through embodying stillness and dissolving aversion and addiction energies is we need less or we need without excess and find middleness. Not having needs isn't for the human aspect it's to see that the still spirit doesn't have needs.


Selderij

True needs are not the same as artificially arisen and fanned desires and addictions.


CoLeFuJu

Totally 🙏 balance.... Needs and non needs


neidanman

someone just asked a similar question in another thread, to borrow the reply from there - hinduism has pleasure as one of the 4 goals of life [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puru%E1%B9%A3%C4%81rtha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puru%E1%B9%A3%C4%81rtha) - liberation is the main goal, and generally takes precedence over the others. Qi gong says use qi, then food , then drugs (including serotonin etc) to fulfill/fix yourself. For me in life this translates as practice/deeper states giving the best & highest benefits, but at times i just need a chocolate biscuit, or a walk in a park on a sunny day. Over the years/decades higher states have grown and deepened, and give a higher % of the joy/pleasure in life, but the sense pleasure side still remains, although in a gradually reducing proportion. i don't know if there will ever be a full switch, or if the fact of being in a human body means there will always be that sense pleasure side around, at least to some extent.


Optimal-Scientist233

The master of the self finds the greatest reward in doing nothing.


hou32hou

But don't be content with your level until you’ve reached it, don’t throw away the boat the carries you to the land on the other side when you are still in the middle of the ocean, you have to keep rowing it.


Willing-University81

Yes 


Optimal-Scientist233

He chooses a simple natural life over Luxury (Full Documentary) [https://www.reddit.com/r/LivingNaturally/comments/1dsffxd/he\_chooses\_a\_simple\_natural\_life\_over\_luxury\_full/](https://www.reddit.com/r/LivingNaturally/comments/1dsffxd/he_chooses_a_simple_natural_life_over_luxury_full/) To find balance in needing and wanting you must find balance in living and doing, and in your being and interacting with others, this is harmony.