Some questions for note making

(a) On the basis of your understanding of above passage make notes on it, using headings and subheadings. Use recognisable abbreviations (wherever necessary – minimum four) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply an appropriate title to it. (b) Write a summary of the passage in about 100 words.

Read the passage given below. Once a desire arises, we cannot forget it. There is an insistence within to fulfil it, that things must happen the way we want. As long as we have such compulsive desires, it is impossible to gain peace. The thought of the wish fulfilment keeps encroaching on our thoughts, thereby destroying our peace of mind. We cannot even sleep properly because our mind is filled with desires. Once we have enjoyed something, we crave for it again and again. If we scratch when we feel an itch, we find that the itching increases. The nature of desire is the same. Once we start enjoying something, there arises more and more craving for it. Initially we desire pleasures we have not yet experienced and once we have enjoyed them, we keep remembering them and long to experience them again. When we sit for meditation or as we try to sleep, are these not the two thinks that disturb us – past experiences and future aspirations? This does not mean that we should not plan for the future. It is not the day-to-day planning of work that we need to give up. The remembrance and desires for pleasurable experiences have to be given up. Buddha teaches that desires are the root cause for all evils. He taught his disciples to overcome all desires to attain enlightenment. In fact, all religions teach us to control our desires to have a peaceful life. But it is easier said than done. In today’s materialistic world where we are bombarded with a verity of things of all types and all for uses, it is very difficult to resist temptations. However you can do it if you learn to decide you’re priorities and stick to it.