The Art of Loving Session 2 - The Meaning of Desire
A five part series by Rabbi Laibl Wolf, Spiritgrow Josef Kryss Centre, Melbourne, Australia
http://www.spiritgrowjosefkrysscenter.org
Sources: Tanya: Vol. 1, Ch. 44
Filmed 4th July 2011
1. The Love Known as Desire (Ta'avah)
• We previously defined a higher (ahava rabba)and a lower love (ahavat olam), but there is a form of love that incorporates elements of both, called Ta'avah
• This love is a 'genetic spiritual inheritance' from the forefathers, Abraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov.
2. What is Ta'avah?
• What is the meaning of desire?
• Desire is characterized by the 'gap' -- the distance between the experience and the 'mind or body memory'. It is the absence of the fulfillment that awakens Ta'avah and produces the experience of yearning or pining.
• Other English synonyms: longing, yearning, wanting, craving
3. Positive and Negative desires
• Lower forms of Ta'avah are filtered through the nefesh behamis (ego-self) (and colloquially referred to as 'Tayves').
These result in behaviors that seek self-oriented satisfaction e.g. craving sugar, a predilection to physical titillation, an addiction to a substance, food, or even people (leading to controlling and dominating behaviors), and others.
• Higher forms of Ta'ava are filtered through the Nefesh Elokis (selfless disposition).
These result in behaviors that seek a higher order yet selfless desire e.g. longing for a loved one who is away, or similar 'spiritual' yearning to enter into states of Oneness rather than satisfy body cravings.
• This distinction can even be applied to hunger. Hunger pangs induce a lower-order desire for food to relieve the body symptoms. But eating can also be a conscious act to fulfill the desire of elevating the sparks of soul contained within the food.
4. Desire of Life
• The most profound desire is that of life. It is referred to in more contemporary language as the instinctive drive to survive. This Desire is the most engrained one in the human being.
• Another profound example is the Desire to love and be loved. So strong is it that people might even kill for it or compromise their principles in other ways to attain it. Such desire has a strong addictive Nefesh Behamis component leading to the negative results. But it is also expressed altruistically and its denial can lead to 'love-sickness' or lack of life's fulfillment.
• A lofty spiritual expression of Desire is the seeking of states of Oneness with the All. This Desire too can be governed by the ego self (Nefesh Behamis) or channeled through the higher ego-less self (Nefesh Elokis)
• A meditative focus to arouse a positively channeled Desire of life and Oneness (Achdus) can be effected through the Modeh Ani affirmation upon awakening in the morning.
• A lower order example of life's Desire is to seek sensual experiences for the body as the common expression "I want to feel alive!" The media and entertainment business is expert at exploiting this lower order Desire.
The next session this Monday night (tonight) will be on 'Love, Familial Relationships, and Arousal Meditations'
