Can you speak to the difference between desire and planning for a goal,
Which I think is the desire to reach that goal?
I understand there shouldn't be attachment to the outcome.
It is true,
That is desire.
The difference is that seeing desire as desire or allowing yourself to attach yourself to that desire.
Suffering happens when you attach yourself to the desire.
However,
If you see desire as it is without attaching yourself,
Then you don't create suffering because of it.
As we live our lives,
We create goals for ourselves.
It's not something that's given to us at birth.
We set it for ourselves.
So how we define this is once,
Say you don't achieve your goal,
And if you suffer because of it,
Then we call that desire or greed.
However,
If you don't suffer despite not achieving that goal,
We call that an aspiration.
The fact that it wasn't achieved yet.
Maybe you had a wrong approach to that goal.
Maybe you didn't make enough effort.
Maybe the surrounding circumstance,
Conditions were not mature yet.
I'm sure there are various reasons.
But if you despair and suffer just because your goal was not met without considering all these attendant circumstances,
That means you are greedy.
You are attached to your desire.
You are suffering because you think that something should be achievable when the conditions are not ripe for that to be achievable.
And that leads to despair and disappointment.
But somebody who aspires to do something,
It's not like that.
If something fails to achieve the goal,
Then you re-examine your approach.
You start to investigate,
How can I do this better?
And question yourself again,
Is this something that I really want to achieve?
And also explore whether attendant conditions are ripe for this to be achievable.
And if the circumstances are not there for you to achieve this goal,
Even though you tried to achieve it so far,
You should stop.
If the approach is wrong,
Then you should adjust your approach.
And maybe during investigations or exploration,
You can come up with a new method.
If you didn't put in enough effort,
Then take more time to put in the effort.
That's why you don't suffer.
And there is no despair or giving up.
Because you are constantly investigating deeper and growing your experiences and your capacity.
So you no longer are so attached to the result itself,
But you are more focused on the process,
On growing your own experiences and your capacity.
A practitioner does not necessarily mean you don't have no goals.
If we need goals,
We set goals.
But we don't suffer because that goal was achieved or not achieved.
Also,
If we don't set goals,
A practitioner should not feel empty or be afraid of being left behind.
Because there is nothing that you must do.
But then again,
If something is given for you to do,
Then you do it willingly.
Because there is no specific reason for you not to do something.
So you become free.
Thank you.
