溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Which of My Desires Are Natural, and Which Are Empty?
If the body's desires can be sorted into the natural-and-necessary and the empty — which am I now chasing?
Natural wealth is limited and easy to obtain, but the wealth of empty opinions runs on to infinity.
Epicurus' insight — that natural wealth is limited while empty wealth is infinite — sits within the lineage of how to handle desire. Rather than abolish desire, he bade one rest in the limited need set by nature. The Stoics, more severe, sought to govern and extinguish desire itself, and Buddhism took craving (tanha) as the root of suffering, making its cessation the path. But an opposite lineage existed too. The Cynics and some hedonists championed the free satisfaction of natural desire, and modern capitalism made desire not something to suppress but the engine of growth, to be created and filled endlessly. Is desire to be discerned, extinguished, or unleashed? The lineage split.
The more an age manufactures new desires without end, the more this question — which is natural need and which empty craving — restores discernment to the body's wants.
Epicurus divides wealth in two: the wealth that fills the needs set by nature is limited and soon reached, while the wealth swollen by empty opinion is endless and cannot be filled however much one pours in.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Epicurus divides wealth in two: the wealth that fills the needs set by nature is limited and soon reached, while the wealth swollen by empty opinion is endless and cannot be filled however much one pours in. I read this question as making me ask again, "how much is enough?" Natural need soon shows its floor, but the craving planted by others' eyes runs toward the infinite. Will the desire now pulling me be soon filled and cease, or call endlessly for something larger? I stand before this discernment, and this question.
✍️Your Answer
The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.
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This is not a museum of answers but a lineage of questions. All sources are public-domain texts; the lineage and reflection are 100% original ONGO content.
