Wants and Needs

  I have a little pocket book in my bag which outlines Master Sheng Yen's 108 Adages. I would like to refresh my blog a bit and write about some of the adages and how they have touched me in some ways.
   The first adage is "Our Needs Are Few; Our Wants Are Many". While reading this adage, I was reflecting on how the scattered mind is usually fueled by many wants. Thoughts themselves are a little bit like many-shaped clouds: if I keep trying to catch one, then followed by another and then another, then my mind is not stable and grounded enough to know what is really needed. This is the cause for a lot of needless suffering I have created and inflicted upon others. Cultivating a stillness practice is needed to still a lot of those wandering and scattered thoughts.
   What would a life with "few" wants really be like? Let me qualify this by suggesting that from a Mahayana point of view, it's probably not about becoming like a rock and doing nothing. To the contrary, having few wants would mean being open enough to accommodate many more situations than is conceivable only on the basis of a few select wants. For example, if I walk into a gathering and I am only focused on figuring out what happened to so-and-so, I will completely ignore the other elements of the surroundings and miss the opportunity to know different people and even to observe the surroundings as a whole. In this way, my fixation to one or two things limits what is possible for me to reach out to.
   On the other hand, being rooted in a few simple needs is the second part of this equation. It means not getting clouded or confused about what is a "need" and what is only a "want". How to distinguish these? Quite simply, needs are the things I need to continue to benefit other sentient beings.  Wants, on the other hand, are thoughts of my own personal pleasure and fulfillment. When I am meeting my needs, I have this open space to meet the needs and even wants of others. Then I am able to practice compassion on some level.