Anything worth doing...

Anything worth doing is worth doing..... badly! This is my version of the statement that says the opposite ("worth doing well") and my point is that it's possible to be paralyzed by fear of failure or mediocrity. If it's worth doing.. just do it, and let others worry about the "label".

A conversation on happiness and desire

A: The way I see it, if you are truly happy there is nothing
in the world you would want to have or desire...:)

Me:  Hmm... sounds like a philosophy 101 proposition! To me the
ability to "desire" is part of being happy. Happiness is in the
journey, not the "arrival" and if you are on a journey you desire the
final goal. There is only one state that spells... the absence of
desire, and that is not "true happiness"; it's death.
Ok. do I get at least a B-? :-)

A:  to me desire is the search for something,... when you
feel happiness and contentment it is very powerful and the search its
over. I know that it is temporary...nevertheless when you have it in you it is magnificent!

Me:  I basically agree. I just took it as a philosophical statement it
would be fun to challenge, as an intellectual game. Buddhism keys in on the absence of desire as a path or indication of having achieved happiness. You posed the question in reverse " If I am truly happy do I still have desires"? A Buddhist would say "no, by definition". I respect that, but lately I have been thinking that there is a strong component of happiness IN desire. Even the concept of "Paradise", which is the ultimate "absence of desire" for having landed in the lap of the creator, is not appealing to me. I prefer life with all its travails and desires, thank you very much. My
paradise is right here and right now... desires and all. Not an argument... just a perspective.