Some early morning, off the top of my head thoughts on the ideas you’ve raised.  Desire could be seen as a function of the ego, the nucleus of the naf.  Ego extends through the being like the venous system, it is all-pervasive.  Ego is like a naughty child, one that we can see.  The idea of self-improvement initially appeals to the ego and it can be enlisted for a time to aid the seeker, but not for long.  The ego is not a unified whole, but made up of usually contradictory elements within us that seek expression, believing that they have the answers to a satisfying life. (ie, getting revenge, getting more money, having more power, more autonomy, more rain, more peace, more trees, more work, more tea, more truth, gimme more!

Fortunately , there is always the idea of not letting the right hand know what the left is doing. 

Which leads me to, have you ever tried to put yourself into a place outside the time-space contiuum?  It is very difficult, it is impossible.  The second one thinks one is ‘there’ you realise you cannot be.  Bound as we apparently are, to the idea of a physical body and a space in ‘time’.  We are operating with a system, that is bound up in the earth but is not of the earth, at its core it operates under a whole lot of different non-physical laws beyond space and time--?

But I go on.

Don’t do yourself an injury indulging your desires!  Enjoy them ‘as they leave’.
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A very good and interesting post, though I have found that the nafs are tricky indeed, and would show a bad teacher to be good, in that he would indulge you, and a good one to be bad, since the nafs want to have their way. But this is too general. It usually takes some flash of...something, a vision, a brush with death, a metanoia, a change in perception, before one is ready to even begin to look for a teacher. Otherwise it is a futile exercise, and many just fall by the wayside, going their own way, or wasting years and accomplishing nothing. A true teacher is known because he will ask much of YOU, not your nafs. Allah knows the truth.

And that was a wonderful Shah story I am adding you to my blogroll.

Ya Haqq!

Taoism (Daoism) also attracts me for its abstract and transcendal nature to realize the reality.

A very good thought provoking post indeed.

Thanks.

With regards to restraining of desires have just come across this translation which might interest you and some of your readers.

Best Wishes

http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/habashi_text.html

Fascinating post.

Matt
eclectic itchings

Very interesting. I had never heard of what you call the “‘Magick’” strategy for getting rid of desire “by indulging it to the point where one no longer feels the desire and therefore transcends it.”

I imagine such a strategy could be open to abuse by people who simply wish to indulge their desires without getting rid of them. How does this strategy differ, if at all, from the philosophies that call for indulgence for its own sake (I’m thinking of groups like the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set)?

Also, I imagine that followers of what you call the religious approach would say that one cannot “exhaust desire” by indulging it, but rather that indulgence only makes desire stronger.

What do you think about desire and what we should do with it?

hello there. I’ve read your post. I think you’re talking about Taoism?

I think Easterners and those from traditional societies are more suited to Taoism. ^^ this is because we do not need to control nature, we adapt to it, and we are one with it.

I think it would be extremely hard for a Westerner to know, understand and accept Taoism. There is a tendency to see it as too abstract and mystical, whereas it is NOT. I am not a Taoist, but my readings and conversations w/ Chinese convinced me that it is very nature-based, and earthly. How else can one experience THE WAY except in THIS dimension and life? 

If a person has any mind/matter dualistic ideas (such as Plato had) he will not get Taoism. 

There is a being, wonderful, perfect;
It existed before heaven and earth.
How quiet it is!
How spiritual it is!
It stands alone and it does not change.
It moves around and around, but does not on this account suffer.
All life comes from it.
It wraps everything with its love as in a garment,
and yet it claims no honor, it does not demand to be Lord.
I do not know its name, and so I call it Tao,
and I rejoice in its power ("te").

~Tao Te Ching 25, quoted in Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions

as for desire: I think we should follow what our nature/soul tells us. ^^ (and naturally, being part of the bigger whole, a community and society, suffer the consequences) Sometimes we think it is our SOUL telling us, but it’s really THE MIND/REASON/INTELLECT/EGO which we put ABOVE our natural desires. Mind VS Matter. Spirit VS Body. Indulge or Resist? problems arise when the individual thinks he is alone and that he’s just passing by on this earth and his life has no other purpose, that he is OUTSIDE the world. (like the Christian idea that he will inherit the Kingdom after the sufferings here on Earth) naturally his desires will conflict with the rest of society. he feels SEPARATE from it…

Filipinos are a primitive Taoists because they are extremely childlike, simple people. WE don’t philosophize or think about “thinking”. We follow our heart’s desires. We are rooted and grounded in our land, family, community. We BELONG. A Filipino could afford to follow his heart’s desire in the olden times - he was controlled and at the same time protected by SOCIETY.

This is why a Filipino is miserable in modern society- he wants to follow his heart’s desires.  But in a globalized, industrialized, mechanized, modern world being CHILDLIKE is gonna be suicide. he is torn between what his heart desires (which he did not DECIDED, something which he has no control of) and what he should do to ADAPT to this “modern” society. or he follows his hearts’ desires and compromises the bigger community.

I am not saying that life in the slow lane or “Easterners” is better. I was just emphasizing the fact that we are in completely different paradigms and ways of thinking. Even the Greco-Roman language cannot quite express our view of this world.

I really love reading about your search for “Teachers”. that’s “The WAY”. WAY to go!

^^