The only desires that can be corrected are desires that have an addition, a special form of an attitude towards desire called an intention. There are instinctive desires for fulfillment on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, which are simply enrooted in us by nature. And there are desires that operate through an intention, which assume a special attitude towards the source of pleasure, and not the pleasure itself.
The reason I want to be rich is not because I receive pleasure from buying things with money, but because I am envious of my rich neighbor. I want to be big, beautiful, and slender, always comparing myself to the others. A certain attitude towards others is part of this, and it gives me an additional pleasure. If the attitude towards my neighbor disappears, I will have no reason for this pleasure.
Egoistic desire appears from the fact that we were once connected and then became distanced from one another. And this distance, breaking, affects our desire, increases it, and gives it the form of an attitude towards other, foreign, desires, and ultimately the Creator. In other words, it defines my attitude toward something that exists outside of me.
When it comes to a simple instinctive desire, I only want to fulfill it. And the others do not concern me at all—it is only my desire. But the desires of the “human” level are not my inherent desires, but acquired ones. I have acquired them by being connected with others some time ago or by being in an environment that rouses this kind of desires in me.
The desires that get corrected have an intention that appeared from the past connection into a single desire. This is why this intention is present in us and constantly awakens, demanding correction.
We attain the understanding of the creature, the Creator, and a 620 times greater fulfillment and connection specifically through the correction of this intention.
[59653]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/3/2011, Writings of Rabash
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