Mystical Phi.losophy: from Greed to Desire and Longing

Somebody asked:

“How is ‘longing’ different from ‘greed’? Can Phi Tuyet explain?

In English, there is one word that carries both meanings: desire. It stands somewhere between greed and longing. When desire is raw, it feels like greed. When it becomes more subtle, it starts to feel like longing.
So in this post, if I use the word desire, I mean it more in the sense of longing.

In Vietnamese, there are tham-lam (greed) and khao-khát (longing), which to many people might feel almost the same. In this sense, English seems to express the difference more clearly.

Greed is wanting to have.
Desire or longing is wanting to know.

It’s still wanting, but the nature is completely different.

Greed has a rush. The more greed, the more haste – almost rushed, impatient.

Longing/desire is something much more essential; it belongs to the timeless.
It is always there, patient, waiting: waiting to be filled, to be satisfied, to be free from the thirst. Even if it has to wait forever to be filled, it will still wait.

(In Vietnamese, longing is khao khát, and khát = thirsty, how beautiful!)

And in that state of waiting, in that patient state, many things happen: Letting-go happens. Acceptance happens. Greed disappears.

Time can kill or erase greed easily.
But time cannot touch longing.
In fact, time challenges, washes, and sharpens desire into longing.

Example of greed: when Phi Tuyet talks about the mystical of openning chakras, many people immediately want to open the chakras and expect it to be easy, many even expecting someone else would do it for them => this is greed. But when I talk about its journey, its difficulty, the patience and discipline one needs to have => 99% of greed disappears, people easily give up. This giving-up is not letting-go. This giving-up is full of disappoint, discouragement.

People don’t want it anymore because it’s too difficult, not easy as they wished, and they realize their ability is not yet ready. Even far from that.

People easily want to open the third-eye which means the sixth chakra without considering the work for the first five ones. Almost greedy people normally are still stucked at the first chakra or the second – but they don’t want to accept this. Just hear about this, and they would decide this wisdom about chakras could be wrong. How can they be so low on the ladder of chakras? So naturally, greedy people will want to open the sixth without even knowing what it is… this is a very pure signal to see they are on the first – The Greed. I met so many people like that, cannot even count. Many care on the surface, just a few seeker would care deep enough to take the first step into the journey. (I don’t talk about this journey anymore because of that, seems like no seeker)

Greed makes people want something as much/as many and as quickly as possible.

But if a person has a desire/longing, they will accept the challenge of this difficult journey, even if they don’t know if they can do it or where it will lead them – they still want to know.

Desire/Longing creates endless energy for people.

Greed creates energy for a very short time, and then it just fades away. Greed takes away energy.

Desire/Longing creates discipline, self-discipline. It creates commitment. It creates effort.

Greed hates discipline, hates commitment, hates effort.

Everyone is living in a lot of greed – this is nothing new and nothing special.

But if your life has no desire/longing, it is a bit sad. Because it shows that you have not yet gone into the depth of life.

Desire/Longing is the energy needed to go into the depth.
Greed is the shorterm energy used only to go on the surface.

In greed – THAM there is HAM, means Greedy.
In longing – KHÁT, there is HÁT means Singing. Joy. Celebrate.

In short, greed obscures awareness and pulls down one’s life energy (or soul), while desire/longing increases awareness and thereby helps pull the soul up.

Phi Tuyết, Sweet Phi.losopher, Poet and Mystic