"Listen to your desires. But just make sure you distinguish them from your needs," I warned.
"What's the difference?"
"Basically, the ego has needs, and the soul has desires. I'll let God answer in more detail..."
Desires and needs are not the same thing (although many of you have made them so in your present lifetime). [For to have a desire for something is often to have a need for it. That is why addicts are said to need a fix. Be careful, therefore, that desire not become addiction.]
Desire is the beginning of all creation. It is first thought. It is a grand feeling within the soul. It is God, choosing what next to create. And what is God’s desire?
I desire first to know and experience Myself, in all My glory — to know Who I Am. Before I invented you — and all the worlds of the universe — it was impossible for Me to do so.
Second, I desire that you shall know and experience Who You Really Are, through the power I have given you to create and experience yourself in whatever way you choose.
Third, I desire for the whole life process to be an experience of constant joy, continuous creation, never-ending expansion, and total fulfillment in each moment of now.
I have established a perfect system whereby these desires may be realized. They are being realized now — in this very moment. The only difference between you and Me is that I know this.
In the moment of your total knowing (which moment could come upon you at anytime), you, too, will feel as I do always: totally joyful, loving, accepting, blessing, and grateful.
Neale Donald Walsch
"Desires are the ideas that make your heart sing," I added. "When you envision your life, what gets you excited? What are you passionate about? What do you want to experience? Where do you want to travel? Where do you want to live? How do you want to feel in your body? What kind of relationship do you want? What do you value? What's the nature of your friendships? What creative projects get you excited? What business do you want to start? What job do you want to thrive in? How do you want to impact the world?
Your imagination provides an infinite buffet of options to choose from. You can combine ideas, remix them, and play with them in the flexible sandbox of your mind before translating them into dense physical reality. When you 'try on' a desire in your imagination, does it feel exciting, joyful, and abundant? Does it feel like 'you?'
Many people think they have desires when they actually have needs. Desires are joyful and expansive, whereas needs come with expectations and conditions. You think you want that trip to Coachella, but really you just want to show off photos on social media because you're deeply insecure. You think you want that manager position because your ego likes that label, or it's the thing you do to rise up the corporate ladder — but really you hate managing people and would rather do more joyful 'maker' work instead of 'manager' work. You think you want to be a famous rockstar, but you aren't actually passionate about your craft — you just want the external validation that comes from having adoring fans screaming your name.
This idea is closely related to the concept of 'passion,' which God talks about here..."
Often a person on what you call a spiritual path looks like he has renounced all earthly passion, all human desire. What he has done is understand it, see the illusion, and step aside from the passions that do not serve him — all the while loving the illusion for what it has brought to him: the chance to be wholly free.
Passion is the love of turning being into action. It fuels the engine of creation. It changes concepts to experience.
Passion is the fire that drives us to express who we really are. Never deny passion, for that is to deny Who You Are and Who You Truly Want to Be.
The renunciate never denies passion — the renunciate simply denies attachment to results. Passion is a love of doing. Doing is being, experienced. Yet what is often created as part of doing? Expectation.
To live your life without expectation — without the need for specific results — that is freedom. That is Godliness. That is how I live.
You are not attached to results?
Absolutely not. My joy is in the creating, not in the aftermath. Renunciation is not a decision to deny action. Renunciation is a decision to deny a need for a particular result. There is a vast difference.
Could you explain what You mean by the statement, “Passion is the love of turning being into action”?
Beingness is the highest state of existence. It is the purest essence. It is the “now-not now,” the “all-not all,” the “always-never” aspect of God. Pure being is pure God-ing.
Yet it has never been enough for us to simply be. We have always yearned to experience What We Are — and that requires a whole other aspect of divinity, called doing.
Let us say that you are, at the core of your wonderful Self, that aspect of divinity called love. (This is, by the way, the Truth of you.) Now it is one thing to be love — and quite another thing to do something loving. The soul longs to do something about what it is, in order that it might know itself in its own experience. So it will seek to realize its highest idea through action.
This urge to do this is called passion. Kill passion and you kill God. Passion is God wanting to say “hi.”
But, you see, once God (or God-in-you) does that loving thing, God has realized Itself, and needs nothing more.
Man, on the other hand, often feels he needs a return on his investment. If we’re going to love somebody, fine — but we’d better get some love back. That sort of thing.
This is not passion. This is expectation.
This is the greatest source of man’s unhappiness. It is what separates man from God.
The renunciate seeks to end this separation through the experience some Eastern mystics have called samadhi. That is, oneness and union with God; a melding with and melting into divinity.
The renunciate therefore renounces results — but never, ever renounces passion. Indeed, the Master knows intuitively that passion is the path. It is the way to Self realization.
Even in earthly terms it can be fairly said that if you have a passion for nothing, you have no life at all.
Neale Donald Walsch
"So," I continued, "your soul's desires and passions represent the 'call to adventure' in the archetypal hero's journey. Your soul literally calls you to adventure by presenting you with potential quests (desires) to embark on in this game. As God says, 'desire is God, choosing what next to create.'
Your mind then evaluates the different quests on offer and chooses which one to embark on next. Remember — 'The function of the soul is to indicate its desire, not impose it. The function of the mind is to choose from its alternatives. The function of the body is to act out that choice.'"
