The Flames We Hide · 7 — Desire: The Heat Without Mastery

Desire is both light and fire — the force that can create or consume.
In this meditation, you’ll learn to witness craving without being ruled by it. Through mindful breath and embodied awareness, you’ll feel the energy of wanting as pure aliveness — not as something to chase or suppress, but to understand and refine. Each flicker of longing becomes a teacher, each breath a cooling touch.
Continue your inner journey through The Flames We Hide with the next reflection: Fatigue — When the Fire Goes Dim.

Transcript

Hi.

Thank you for showing up again.

This one is heavy.

It's about desire.

Not the soft kind that dreams.

The kind that burns.

The harsh.

Breathe with me.

In for four.

We all grow up chasing something.

In America,

It starts early.

The sneakers.

The car.

The body.

The high.

The commercials tell us what happiness looks like.

The streets tell us how to fake it until we can buy it.

You are what you get.

When I was a kid in foster homes,

I wanted everything.

Love.

Safety.

New shoes.

A full plate.

When I finally got adopted,

I thought every desire was answering.

But desire doesn't stop when it's fed.

In for four.

Hold for six.

Out for eight.

Later came the teenage dreams.

Good clothes.

Escape.

That quick heaven that leaves you emptier than before.

I chased peace through every wrong doorway.

And every door opened into the same room.

Pain dressed up as pleasure.

Think of something you crave often.

Attention.

Scrolling.

Whatever it is.

Feel where it lives in your body.

A pull in the gut.

A hunger behind the eyes.

Just notice.

This is the loop the Buddha called craving.

Craving.

Craving.

Reaction.

But with mindfulness there is a space.

In that space you can breathe.

In that space you can choose.

In for four.

Hold for six.

Out for eight.

Try riding the wave instead of drowning in it.

Watch it rise.

Even the strongest craving dies if you do not feed it.

Let's surf one together.

Imagine that want coming up like a wave.

Stay on the board of your breath.

In for four.

Stay with the feeling.

That question alone can save a life.

I have sat in late night recovery circles.

Rooms where cravings hum in the air like wires.

Different habits.

And every time someone tells the truth out loud.

You can feel the urge lose power.

The Buddha said there is no river like craving.

It never stops flowing.

But we can step out of the current.

We do it by seeing the water for what it is.

At your desire.

At the promise it makes.

At the suffering it hides.

Sit with that in silence.

In for four.

Hold for six.

Out for eight.

Freedom does not come from killing desire.

When you can watch the fire without needing to touch it.

That is mastery.

That is peace.

So tonight if you feel that tug.

The old habit whispering one more.

Just breathe.

Remember what is real.

You are not your urges.

Sit in that awareness for a moment.

Next we step into fatigue and cynicism.

When the fire goes dim.