2009/5/25

Habit and Desire

This idea of separating desire from its source came to me last week. I think it is interesting if I can develop it into something meaningful or a part of a mind framework. I have yet to describe what I understand what a habit is.
What do I know about a habit? I have associated that a habit is a form of behavior that we allow ourselves to sink into. Once sunk, we will take great effort and time to pull out of it.What do I know about a habit? I have associated that a habit is a form of behavior that we allow ourselves to sink into. Once sunk, we will take great effort and time to pull out of it. I read from somewhere that it usually takes 21 days for a habit to form. I would say for an unnatural thing to do it will take 21 days for us to sink 'comfortably' into doing this unnatural thing with minimal awareness (but never zero awareness). Habits can be productive or non-productive, meaningful or meaningless. We are all animals of habits and bounded by them. We accumulate them every day so we get our daily routines moving without much active mental efforts. Habit is the kind of things that we get through every single day. We form habits because of our laziness, the need to be efficient and be socially acceptable. Habit is important and no one could live without one. While some basic habits are totally inevitable, some are culturally and bound and related, and the remaining ones seem to be free for us to choose from. It is the matter of the individual awareness of the habit forming and changing. While some of the habits are formed with little awareness as we are doing this somewhat routinely, some others are simply difficult to form as there are always reluctance and resistance.
So what is the connection between desire and habit? I have a speculation here. As we move along everyday mostly in the form of habits, most of our desires must be arisen from those habits. At least I would expect our daily desires come from the habits themselves. I know they are not precise statements about habit and desire but I can argue that they are loosely and yet closely related. I will further develop further and provide examples but right now I will have to term that kind of desire a 'habitual desire'. The other two desires are 'biological' desire and then the similarly important kind of desire called 'curiosity-induced' desire. Our materialistic desire, therefore will fall into both habitual and the curiosity desires. How do we distinguish both clearly without contemplating their underlying differences? I will try to give a few examples to give the three kinds of desire a clear distinction. Food, for example, is an object to meet our biological desire, especially when we are hungry. And yet a desire for food while we are not hungry and yet at a regular and defined time period can be called a habitual desire. At this moment we are not yet hungry and yet we will get our meal. If we don't, we get restless despite the fact we are not hungry. Our desire for elegantly prepared, somewhat rare, exotic or perceivably extremely delicious food items reveals our curiosity. Obviously this desire is above both our biological and habitual needs. Even though they are always mixed together, at times it is hard to tell which is which until we look deeper or reflect quietly.