The Force Of Overcoming, Part 2

Question: It turns out that all the overcoming is in the desire that will win in me?

Answer: If my parents punish me, forcing me to do homework, my desire to avoid the blows becomes stronger than the desire to rest, and I go and do all that is required.

We always act according to our desire. The only question is whether it is my desire that obliges me to act or someone else’s desire. If this desire arises directly in me, then I realize it with pleasure and it does not require me to overcome anything.

If I see that the desire in not mine, then it is called coercion. In the end, I also perform the required act on my own accord by making the calculation that otherwise I would be punished or have no money for food. But this is someone else’s desire, not my true desire, that forces me to act, and that is why I do this without joy.

The action itself does not contain any overcoming! I always do everything according to the desire: either emerging in me or that presses and forces me. But, overcoming by myself is in obtaining good desires that are useful for me. So, I purposefully absorb them from the environment.

For example, my parents wanted me to become a musician. And so my father took me to watch movies about musicians. He wanted me to be inspired by their life, glory, and world fame, and he also wanted me to want to be like them. But the only thing I remembered from this, is that eventually they all ended their lives and died because I was a child of 6 – 7 years old.

Using these examples, my parents wanted to instill the desire to study music in me, but I did not absorb it and suffered much from studying at a music school. This shows that overcoming applies to a person who understands that he needs it. He has no choice, and thus he overcomes his original desire and acquires a new one.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/27/14