Meditativeness is a way of being
The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.
Question (Q): Dear Sir, we have been talking about how to use the ‘higher’ desire of brahman as a broom to clean up all the desires and then to burn the broom itself. Do you think I should simply sit back and read without this burning desire, this lust for knowledge, this burning need to go beyond conflict?
Acharya Prashant (AP): Burning desire has its own place. You would not have probably read so much without it. And that has helped you in its way.
Oddly so, one of the biggest problems with desire is that it cannot be permanent. Driven by desire, how long can one go? Desire subsides and one desire gives way to the other.
That is why desire-based reading (or any other activity) is going to be limited. As they say, there would be a ‘burn-out’ sooner or later.
Secondly, desire-based action would always have an objective. Desire is objective. Desire sees not beyond its objective and hence focuses on a fragment. On the contrary, understanding requires integration.
Can there be more peaceful reading? Maybe just a few pages. But with more integration. Meditation and completeness.