How to Transmute the Energy of Desire and Longing

An effective way of transmuting the energy of desire and longing into spiritual fulfillment is to momentarily take our focus off the object of desire and place it instead on the energy of DESIRE ITSELF. We might call this a "mindfulness of desire" because it allows us to focus on an emotion that we usually take for granted. When we do this, we realize that the desire is not actually OURS. Rather, we find our awareness, which is a major aspect of the "real" us, GRASPED and GRIPPED by desire and longing, as though by a Divine Beloved.

When we experience longing from this perspective, we come to realize that our longing for love or fulfillment is actually a participation in Love's and Fulfillment's longing for us! Here, by a magical spiritual alchemy, desire turns out to be its own fulfillment! Or, put in more theistic terms, our desire for God is a participation in God's desire for us, and our longing for the Goddess is actually the Goddess' longing for us!
​
Rather than being the BEGINNING of a process of acquisition whereby the object of longing sets itself up IN FRONT of us, longing is now revealed as the END of the process, with the One from whom the desire arises situated effectively BEHIND us, grasping and magnetizing us with a Longing that loved us first! Here, we come to sink endlessly back into Desire's arms and yet never arrive at the One who is forever grasping us in longing. For The Beloved-as-Desire is eternally LOST in holding us, which means that there is now a sense of being-held with NO ONE doing the holding! In this case, the object of our longing situated in front of us actually becomes merely a crystallization of our own desire, which arises like an echo of The Desire that grasps and holds us from behind in ITS loving embrace!

Photos: (Top) Shore of Crater Lake, Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness, CO, September 27, 2015; (Middle)  Aspen trees and Beckwith Mountain, near Kebler Pass, CO, September 26, 2015; (Bottom) Aspen leaves lying on the surface of a stream, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, October 9, 2015

I am available for one-on-one spiritual direction / mentoring via phone or Skype. You can contact me at [email protected] if you are interested. The rate is $65 per hour-long session. You might also want to check out my Spiritual Direction with Stephen Hatch Facebook page.

Many of my photos are available as prints, either mounted or unmounted. Here is a link to the pricing and various mounts available:

http://www.stephenhatchphotography.com/#!mounting-prices/cpr6