DESIRE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 286, 6 May 1914, Page 6

DESIRE.

tm (Contributed by the Optimist League.)

Our minds are constantly seeking new objects of pleasure through the gates of the senses, and they attach themselves to icvery fresh object that promises to give a pleasant sensation. If anything happens to come in the way to prevent enjoyment of the pleasure," the mind tries to overcome the obstacle. If the desire be strong, and we cannot succeed in gratifying it by ordinary means, we often become angry, and adopt moTC violent measures, losing a peaceful state of mind. When that simple desire for. enjoyment takes the form of anger.and pasion, it agitates the mind, and manifests in tlie form of anger and unrest. Desire in the first stage, passion in the second, and anger in the third. Passion and anger again lead to hatred and jealousy, and often to man)- other bad j feelings and vicious acts. These de- [ sires, according to occult teaching, remain in the sub-conscious mind.

The question then arises: what is the cause of these desires? It is said that they are the outcome of dormant impressions in our minds further thnt when we enjoy any external object through our senses, our minds are impressed with certain changes, which arc produced while we are in contact with the thing. For instance, when we c eat ripe fruit, the impression of its' taste is left, or when wo hear a pleasant or unpleasant sound, an impression is left on the mind. In like manner all impressions, which the external objects leave in -the mind, remain there in seed form, or dormant state. None of them will bo lost, whatever we have suffered or enjoyed in our lives, is stored up in that seed-form .of dormant impressions. Reasoning thus, it can be shown that every new impression is the cause of the seed of a new desire, which leads the individual to repeat it, until it becomes a fixed habit. Similar processes have produced all varieties of habits, good and bad We are told by some thinkers that stored up impressions of one life are not lost by the death of the body, and will become the causes of further desire.s in another life. Ench is born with the stored up impressions of his or her past life on earth. This is an explanation of the wide differi'iiees we see in members of the samo family, for which heredity plus environment alone fails to account. We can understand the importance of endeavouring to control the mind and keep it free from these waves of passion. A modern writer says: "Many difficulties will stretch across the upward path of the aspirant, but ,a resolute will, and a devoted heart, lighted by knowledge, will conquer all in the end, and will reach the Supreme Goal. To rest on the Law is one of the secrets of peace, to trust it utterly at all times, not least when the- gloom descends. A soul that aspires can never fail to rise; no heart that loves can ever ke abandoned. Difficulties exist only, that in overcoming them, we may grow stronger, and they only, who have suffered, are able to save."