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title: desirelessness
weight: 200
draft: true
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There are many religious groups and subgroups[^1] that teach that the ultimate state of existence is desirelessness. They promote the idea that the physical reality is temporary and ephemeral, and further underline the idea of *escape*; that our metaphysical aspects, such as our soul is inherently superior to our "flesh prison" (our body), and that therefore we need to focus our attempts on liberation.

On this, they attempt to reach a logical conclusion; to have a physical presence means to be a prisoner of physical reality and therefore to suffer. In this view, the end goal of religion is to reach a point of spiritual realisation, such that you *reject* your physical presence; you ascend to a purely spiritual plain of existence.

This rejection of the physical self materialises as a drive to reject the physical in general. The physical body *desires*, and to act on your desires means to indulge in your physical experience, which reinforces it's existence and validates it. The only way therefore to reject the physical is to abstain from desires and to reach a state of desirelessness.

On first inspection this appears to makes sense




[^1]: A religious group is for example Sampradaya; a subgroup is Buddhism, which although is an umbrella term for different sects (Mahayana, Therevada, etc) is traditionally seen to be a subgroup of the Sampradaya group, which also includes Hinduism (Mahabharat), as well as Jain and Sikhism. Another example, in the West, is the subgroup of Catholicism, composed of many different liturgical systems and traditions, being a member of the Christianity group, which also includes Orthodoxy.