Brother Richard

we can check in with that part of ourselves that is often known as the animal soul, the part of ourselves that lives by desire, or by at least wanting the fulfillment of its desires.

We can start with the higher desires,

The desire for illumination, enlightenment, sanctification.

The desire to become the fullest version of ourselves that we can be.

The desire to cooperate with love and grace in the building of our life and of our world.

the desire for the happiness of others.

But we also know that there are other desires that sometimes motivate us.

Desires may be for power and domination from an egoic point of view.

Desires for

pleasure or gluttony of the senses rather than a well-ordered use of them.

Even the desire to be distracted.

The desire to be anywhere other than here and now.

The desire that others should live the way I want them to live.

The desire that my own ego should be able to dictate how the world is.

And so we see that we exist, at least in part, between positive and negative desire.

the meditator accepts both as part of themselves and recognizes the truth of their presence without fear, without attachment, without grasping.

And so we can ask ourselves internally, what do I need to do

to cultivate the higher desires and to purify the lower desires.

We see by this that even the lower desires of the animal soul are not wrong in and of themselves, but only become wrong when they are used in a way that is damaging to yourself or to others.

The desire for power, for example, can be used in a good way when it is a desire for agency to do good.