"A desire arises in the mind. It is satisfied immediately another comes. In the interval which separates two desires a perfect calm reigns in the mind. It is at this moment freed from all thought, love or hate"

Desire moves like waves across the surface of awareness. One rises, crests, is briefly appeased, and another follows. The mind, pulled by wanting and aversion, rarely notices that between these waves there is a stillness, a clear interval uncolored by grasping. That quiet gap is not produced by satisfaction; it is revealed when the momentum of wanting pauses. For a moment, the mind stands free of its own story.

The calm is not empty in a barren sense. It is simple, spacious presence, unentangled with images of gaining or losing, winning or failing. “Love or hate” here names the twin pulls of attachment and aversion, the reflex to cling to what pleases and push away what disturbs. Freed from those impulses, awareness rests in equanimity. The relief felt after getting what we want is not the object conferring happiness; it is the brief cessation of craving uncovering our natural ease.

Seen this way, the problem is not desire as such, but identification with its movement. When every impulse is believed and pursued, the mind never discovers its own ground. When an impulse is noticed as an impulse, sensation, thought, urge, it loosens, and the interval opens. Meditation trains this recognition: attend to the arising, dwell gently in the pause, watch the next wave form. With practice, the gap feels less like a rare accident and more like an ever-present backdrop, accessible even amid activity.

Daily life offers countless entry points. After sending a message, before checking for replies, rest one breath in that interval. When a craving flares, name it quietly, feel it in the body, and wait. The wave passes; the sea remains. From this steadiness, choices come less from compulsion and more from clarity. Contentment grows not by exhausting desires but by remembering, again and again, the untroubled space in which they rise and fall.