Is It Practically Possible For Man To Live Without Wants And Desires?

hi preet ... yes, people can live without desires once they have decided they do not want them .. but it effects the others around them. For eg. When Buddha, left his life behind, he left his young wife and his parents ... (well can this be categorised as sin??) wants does not cause pain and miseries for an individual but the 'wants' for the family and friends cause this pain and misery .. by this i mean, -you want to be the better or best child your parents have -you want to own the better house than most people you know -you want people to say, your wife is beautiful / sexy / smart if you are left alone in an island, all you want is only "escape" to civilization and you will pray for that,( & not to have better car or wife , right?) wants is not created by "past life" be it "good or bad" - Basically i will refer to 'karma' - karma only determines 60 % of our current life, balance 40% is from 'the current state of mind' - meaning the desires are product of 'current' and not 'past' life . A murderer becomes 'murderer' due to the 'current state of mind' and he was not being such due to the 'past life' - but - having this bad sin, he will be born in a worst 'aspect of life' cheers dear

Hi preethaanju Very good discussion. In my view without desire and want human being cannot live. Desire and wants make the man to reach to moon and discover myths and mystery of the world. Same way man and women will become the saint without desire.

Yes, this is something that the Buddha discovered on his enlightenment. That without desires we will not suffer. Not desiring something is not so easy and will take intense meditation and contemplation. Even desiring to give up desire, is a desire that will hold us in bondage. For the time being, as a Zen practitioner myself, I accept and observe my mind as it goes from day to day, desiring this and desiring that. I know eventually I will stop desire, when the time is right and my mind is ready to take this on board. Meanwhile, I just find this whole living process quite fascinating, but not always pleasurable. - Derek

I will say it is possible, but it is not that easy. Everybody needs a support in their life not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. People like priests and nuns can do it easily because they live with a single people and they have lots of friends who are single. Other than that, they are totally into god where they do personal talks to god and they dedicate their whole life to god. If a man doesn't marry at his young age doesn't mean that he has to be like that for the whole life. Now, world has changed a lot and the people are coming out of old traditional beliefs. A person has a lot of chances to find a partner at any age through internet and other sources and can get married with the blessings of family.

Hi,You have raised a very interesting topic for discussion. Wants and desires are part of human life and I think it is right to have some desires and to aim to achieve them. This makes the life interesting. It is also true if your desires are not fulfilled , it causes pain and misery. But, here I will share with you an interesting true fact. I am firm believer of astrology and wants and desires are ruled by our star Shukr(venus). If your venus is strong, quantum of your desires will be much and in case the venus gets affected, life becomes listless and one stops feeling of having everything beautiful in your possession. That is why if the venus gets affected, astrologers tell the person to be always in smart clothes and ladies are advised to be decorative like having lipstick on nail polished, wearing good clothes so that you look attractive and also attract the venus back to make life beautiful. This has happened to me also. My Astrologer says that my Venus is affected badly. When he made me understand the true meaning and working of this star in my horoscope, I realized that when I was young my nails were always manicured and polished, my clothes were always of superior quality and in my wardrobe, my suits were arranged in such a way that I did not make a mistake of wearing same suit again in that particular month. But now, it is very rare when I look at my appearance in the miror. Nor do I bother about what I am wearing. I just go out in the clothes which I have been wearing since morning. And my desires are bare minimum now.I have no interest in any particular kind of food. Thus my feeling is that instead of our past sins, it is our stars which rule our desires and wants.

I think it's possible but it's also an extremely difficult task one in which it will be a constant battle. Once acheived it must be continually maintained. That being said it's not for your average joe.

Sir, this is fine as far as spiritual leadrers go.For people who are householders they have to provide for themselves and their family and in their attempt to do so one has to want or have a deep desire else it will become impossible to lead our day to day lives.As long as we work hard and honestly without transgressing on the lawful rights of others we do them no harm.A balance has to be struck between spiritual,religious and material needs.