"When desire is replaced by equanimity, and awareness of all phenomena thus unfolds without reference to self, we gain the freedom to move along with change rather than setting ourselves against it."

Self as a verb - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review - Summer 2005

"Desire is a state of disequilibrium between what is arising and what one wants to be arising."

Self as a verb - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review - Summer 2005

"The more clearly we see the lack of worth in mental and physical sensations, the less desire we'll have for them until, thoroughly disenchanted, craving will be snuffed out automatically. As soon as that occurs, pure happiness will arise by itself."

What's so great about now? - Tricycle:  The Buddhist Review - Winter 2006

"The Buddha clearly stated the reason for practicing mindfulness: to uncover and eliminate the cause of suffering. That cause is desire. When its cause is absent, suffering cannot arise. At that point, the sutras tell us, one knows a happiness with no hint of anxiety to mar it. But that isn't because sights and sounds magically become permanent, lovely, and the property of Self. Rather, these impressions temporarily cease and consciousness touches a supramundane object called "nibbana," the unconditioned element. Although a mental object, nibbana, the "highest bliss," is not a formation at all; it is unformed and permanent. So the present moment is worthwhile because only in it can we experience nibbana - complete freedom from suffering.

Yet can't sense-impressions be pleasurable? Yes, but pleasure isn't the unending source of happiness we take it to be. In daily life we perceive beautiful sensations as solid and relatively lasting, when in fact they're only unstable vibrations that fall away the instant they form. Like cotton candy that dissolves before you can sink your teeth into it, pleasure doesn't endure long enough to sustain happiness. " 

What's so great about now? - Tricycle:  The Buddhist Review - Winter 2006

"The ultimate goal of life, liberation from rebirth, though in general shared by all soteriologies in Brahmanism, Jainism and Buddhism, was represented uniquely by Buddhists as the pacification of all psychological attachments through the extinguishing (nirvana) of desires, which would lead to a consequent extinguishing of karma and the prevention of rebirth."

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Nagarjuna

"Desejar é um aspecto normal de estar vivo. Ficar obcecado por um desejo que não pode ser atendido é o que agita e confunde a mente."

Não faça nada, só fique sentado - p. 76

"Only a self has desire (unlike rocks and trees), not because it is some spiritual essence unique in nature, but because the liking or not liking of something is itself what creates the self, the person who likes or does not like what is happening in this moment. This then creates the conditions for suffering to arise, for only a self can suffer (rocks and trees do not). We can only be disappointed if we set ourselves apart from what is happening by wanting it to be other than it is."

The Buddha's smile - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review - Winter 2012

"Suffering is the desire for more choices than reality offers, but reality is without options."

Stepping out of self-deception - p. 45

"Desire is a state of disequilibrium between what is arising and what one wants to be arising."

Unlimiting mind - p.132

"A being is nothing but a combination of  physical and mental forces or energies. What we call death is the total non-functioning of the physical body. Do all these forces and energies stop altogether with the non-functioning  of the body? Buddhism says 'No'. Will, volition, desire, thirst to exist, to continue, to become more and more, is a tremendous force that moves whole lives, whole existences, that even moves the whole world. This is the greatest force, the greatest energy in the world. According to Buddhism, this force does not stop with the non-functioning of the body, which is death; but it continues manifesting itself in another form, producing re-existence which is called rebirth.

When this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life.

As there is no permanent, unchanging substance, nothing passes from one moment to the next. So quite obviously, nothing permanent or unchanging can pass or transmigrate from one life to the next. It is a series that continues unbroken, but changes every moment. The series is, really speaking, nothing but movement. It is like a flame that burns through the night: it is not the same flame nor is it another. Similarly, a person who dies here and is reborn elsewhere is neither the same person, nor another.

As long as there is this thirst to be and to become, the cycle of continuity (samsara) goes on. It can stop only when its driving force, this thirst, is cut off through wisdom which sees reality, truth, nirvana."

What the Buddha taught - p.33

"It is this thirst, desire, greed, craving, manifesting itself in various ways, that gives rise to all forms of suffering and the continuity of beings. But it should not be taken as the first cause, for there is no first cause possible as, according to Buddhism, everything is relative and inter-dependent."

What the Buddha taught - p.29

"O pensamento, sob a forma de desejo e ânsia em todos os seus aspectos, é uma força criadora que perpetua a continuidade da matéria na qual participa o processo do renascimento.

O desejo tem por base a falsa idéia de um EU, que surge da ignorância que mantém nossa aparente personalidade. Todas as infelicidades, todos os conflitos do mundo, desde as pequenas discussões de família até as grandes guerras entre as nações, têm suas raízes nessa sede de desejo.

Segundo o Budismo, o ser é somente uma combinação de forças ou energias físicas e mentais em fluxo constante. O que chamamos de morte é somente a parada completa do funcionamento do corpo físico. Mas a vontade, o desejo, a sede de existir, de continuar, de vir-a-ser constituem a maior força existente que anima todas as vidas, todas as existências, o mundo inteiro. Essa força não se detém com a morte, continua manifestando-se sob outra forma, produzindo uma nova vida chamada renascimento.  Esse desejo se encontra no agregado das formações mentais, que é um dos cinco agregados que constituem um ser. Portanto, a causa, o germe, o início do aparecimento do sofrimento encontra-se na própria mente do indivíduo que sofre, ainda que a causa pareça vir do exterior."

Budismo: psicologia do autoconhecimento - p. 55-58