Hello and welcome back to practicing human, the podcast where every day we're getting a little better at life.

I'm your host, Cory Muscara, and in today's episode, we're going to talk about the difference between good wanting and bad wanting.

More to come on that in a moment. First, let's settle in together with the sound of the bells.

Okay, so good wanting and bad wanting. Once you get into the world of mindfulness and meditation, the concept of wanting and desire becomes a bit tricky,

because there is this emphasis on non-judgmental awareness and also of non-attachment, not being so swept around by our normal cravings and seeing that many of our cravings create suffering.

We really want something and it creates a constriction within our system and then we get the thing and there's a temporary satisfaction and then there's a let down because it goes away and then we just continue that cycle of desire, desire, desire, give me more, give me more, give me more and can easily create a ton of stress and tension around that.

And I think we've all become somewhat aware of that, nor else we most likely wouldn't be listening to a podcast like this.

There's some sort of recognition that maybe our usual way of trying to find happiness has limitations.

But a lot of people get concerned. It's like, okay, does this mean I shouldn't want anything? Is all wanting bad? Is the goal to get rid of wanting entirely?

So I want to start by sharing a quote by Ajahn Mahabua, and this is from a book, The Middleness of the Middle Way, which is translated by Tanisaro Biku.

And the quote is, so go ahead and want, want to gain release from suffering, want to gain merit, want to go to heaven, want to reach Nirvana.

Go ahead and want as much as you like because it's all part of the path. It's not the case that all wanting is craving.

If we think that all wanting is craving, then if we don't let there be craving, it's as if we were dead. No wanting, no anything.

Is that what it means not to have defilement or craving? Is that kind of person anything special?

It's nothing special at all because it's a dead person. They're all over the place. A person who isn't dead has to want this and that.

Just be careful that you don't go wanting in the wrong direction. That's all. If you want in the wrong direction, it's craving and defilement.

If you want in the right direction, it's the path. So make sure you understand this. If you want in the right direction, it's the path.

So there are some things to unpack within this quote that I don't want to go to into. Just an acknowledgement that this is written within a Buddhist context.

There is some lingo that might need some explanation such as the difference between wanting and craving.

In the Buddhist tradition, one of the poisons of mind that they talk about is greed and this is synonymous with craving.

That's that mind that's just grasping constantly at things. That often becomes the source of so much suffering.

And here in this, one of the lines in this quote is, it's not the case that all wanting is craving such that the desire for something doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad or will lead to suffering.

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