2. Better to be a Renunciant
If happiness is a state of “desirelessness,” then there are two ways in which we
might reach this state. One would be to fulfill all our desires. Another would be to
abandon our desires, to become renunciants. We have seen that, for reasons
deeply rooted in Buddhist philosophy, the first way is a dead end. What about the
second?
If you desire something, there are two possible outcomes. Either your desire
will be satisfied or it will not be. If your desire is unsatisfied, clearly you would
have been better off if you had never had the desire to begin with. But suppose
that it is satisfied. Are you better off in this case? That is, are you better off as a
result of having a satisfied desire than you would have been if you had never had
the desire to begin with? If not, then you would be better off if you could rid
yourself altogether of desires. That is, you would be better off as a renunciant.
In one sense of the term, we can’t “desire” something if we already have it. I
might desire a new home or a new car; I might want to be handsome or brilliant; I
might want to play the piano, or to speak French, or to be a marathon runner.
These are things I might desire, but only if I experience them as things that are
missing in my life, as things that I lack. Understood in this way, accompanying
any desire is a sense of dissatisfaction. To satisfy a desire is simply to alleviate
this sense of dissatisfaction. Satisfying a desire is like quenching a thirst, and this
is precisely how desire is understood in Buddhism. The Pāli term is taṇhā, which
also translates as “thirst” or “craving.”
Understood in this way, having a desire is like having an addiction. Smoking a
cigarette alleviates the craving for a cigarette, but it does not enhance the quality
of a smoker’s life. Ignoring the health risks of a tobacco habit, smokers are not
better off than non-smokers because they satisfy more cravings. They would be
better off without these cravings. And, in general, the satisfaction of a desire
doesn’t add anything to our lives; it simply fills a void. If the ideal state of being is
a state of “fullness,” and if satisfying a desire simply amounts to filling a void,
then clearly we are no better off as a result of having a desire satisfied than we
would have been if we never had the desire.
According to this account, the satisfaction of a desire is not a genuine benefit;
it does not enhance the quality of our lives. It might be compared to recovering
from an illness. It is good to recover from an illness, but it is better never to be sick.
The ideal state of being is to be healthy, and recovering from an illness is a good