Wanting and Needing are Different Things

Desires and needs are not the same thing. You can need something without desiring it. And you can desire something without needing it. Rights are based on needs not desires. You need shelter and food and love so you have a right to these things. Simplicity is a right. Anything extra is an accessory. If anybody wants you to believe in a complicated faith or if things are not kept as simple as possible then your rights are being contravened.

What are wants? They are just desires.

I want a million dollars. Unless I decide to go out and get it, that is not really wanting.

Being attracted to having a million dollars is not wanting. If I really wanted it, I would not sit there but try. True wanting is experiencing the attraction and acting on it.

Wanting something means you feel deprived and you feel a lack.

Often when we want something, we are more focused on the sense of lack than we are on the joy of receiving what we want. That struggle and pain can put you off seeking fulfilment. It makes you wonder if the goal is worth it. It stresses you and when you are tormented by desire for something you run the risk of driving it away and ending up with massive disappointment. It would be better to have as much joy as you can whatever happens. And when you are free enough from craving, you will find that the good things come to you more naturally. If you want too much to sell your car, it will be harder to get rid of it. Be more relaxed and joyful and the sale will happen. This philosophy is simply about accepting and looking for the good in what you cannot change.

Some use, "It is never necessary for me to have what I do not want," as an affirmation. An affirmation is a saying you use over and over to program yourself to feel better. It is only a sensible affirmation if you believe that you can want what you have and cease wanting what you do not have. In that spirit, it is a good affirmation.

People think that if you desire something, that shows that you are experiencing a lack that you need or want fulfilled. Not necessarily. You can for example have the best house in the universe and still desire an extension for it. There is no real lack there - you just make a lack in your own mind.

Also, you can desire the extension and you can desire not getting it at the same time. So it seems that there is no lack. But what you really have is a lack balanced by a non-lack. A balanced lack is still a lack.

If you don't know why you want something, you risk being disappointed when you get it. It is like a husband loving his wife more than anything and not realising it. He could end up unhappy when he is with her. You can be blessed and the blessings may be little or no good to you because of your failure to recognise the blessings.

Think of a drink. You have had enough. You want this drink. You take it. But you do not need it. The next day when you are sick and depressed because of what it did to your body you realise that.