Desires are not wrong or bad. Without desires, human beings would become weak. Desire is our source of energy.

However, if we let our desires run wild, nothing is more terrible than them. There are so many people who have been driven to ruin by their own desires.

So how should we deal with our desires? Desire less and know satisfaction. “Desire less” means to practice thrift and to restrain desires. There used to be many people who led modest lives, saying, “Don’t waste things,” all the time. However, during the time of the bubble economy, people used disposable products, thinking “consumption is a virtue.” That was a big mistake we made.

“Know satisfaction” means to learn to be satisfied with what we have. If we forget how to be satisfied, that is “greed.” Those whose “lives” are controlled by the blind passion of “greed” are called hungry ghosts. We need to remind ourselves of this again and again.

BDK