- by Kameliya Hadzhiyska
I have already written an article about ‘the third kind of suffering.’ Now it is time to write about ‘the third kind of desire,’ because these two — suffering and desire — are deeply interconnected. More precisely, the draft of this article has been ripening for a long time, as it belongs to those themes that take time to mature within me — until I am able to link the common thread across various perspectives and extract the essence of what truly moves me.
In this case, the theme is the different forms of desire (my favorite topic 🙂 ), its connection to the soul, and how this connection reveals itself in the individual differences between people.
We usually associate the word ‘soul’ with spirituality, but that’s not entirely accurate. The soul is the force that breathes life into what it inhabits; it is the source of our vital energy (libido). This is why esoteric traditions hold that everything possesses a soul. Plants have a plant soul, animals have an animal soul, and humans — a human soul.
It is also suggested that many people do not actually possess a human soul, but only an animal one, because they lack what is uniquely human — the capacity to generate consciousness. For those who do have a human soul, it exists at different stages of development, and its desiring nature is not equally spiritualized.
Why did I feel the need to share this? Because making distinctions in the manifestations of a phenomenon is an act of differentiation — and differentiation brings clarity and freedom. In psychology, there are countless traits that describe our individual differences, and a vast number of personality tests have been developed to measure them.
But the above criterion for distinguishing between different types of desire — which also manifests as a trait of human individuality — arises from the knowledge preserved in spiritual traditions, as it concerns the soul of the human being: the source of our desiring nature. It is precisely this understanding that has helped me most in cultivating greater interpersonal tolerance toward certain people in the world we live in.
If you read this article, you will come to understand how desire is viewed in the traditions of Buddhism, Kabbalah, Anthroposophy, and Gnosticism; how it serves both as a source of human suffering and a force behind the development of the soul; and how this knowledge can be practically applied in the field of psychotherapy.
In the interest of clarity, I present these ideas in their simplest form, following the “principle of simplicity” (trimming away excess with Occam’s razor 🙂 ).
Desire In Buddhism
In Buddhism, desire is regarded as the true cause of human suffering. From this follows the understanding that the path to liberation from suffering is the path to liberation from desire. The logic is ironclad: no desire — no suffering. Conversely, where there is desire — there is suffering.
According to this spiritual tradition, there are three distinct desires (cravings or tanha), each giving rise to a specific type of suffering (dukkha).
We suffer when the desire for sensory pleasures and pleasant experiences (kama-tanha) goes unfulfilled.
We suffer from the impermanence of the material world when the desire for continuity (bhava-tanha) is frustrated — the desire to affirm ourselves and preserve what we’ve achieved, to build a family, to avoid losing the object of our love, to live and not to die.
We also suffer from the opposite — when we desire not to live, not to exist, not to feel pain or to endure the inner emptiness and sense of meaninglessness.
Therefore, the first step in overcoming suffering is to recognize its root cause — all of the above. The second step is to practice non-attachment to pleasant experiences. The third is to cease resistance to unpleasant ones. Through these three acts — awareness, non-attachment, and non-resistance — we free ourselves from the three poisons (known as kleshas or “disturbing emotions”), which are the real cause of ongoing suffering: ignorance, attachment, and aversion.
- In short, the goal of the spiritual path in Buddhism is the attainment of enlightenment through the release of these three poisons.
Desire In Kabbalah
In the tradition of Kabbalah (the religious-mystical stream within Judaism), desire is viewed in a very different — even opposite — way. According to this tradition, desire is the very substance we are made of. It likens the soul to an empty vessel that longs to be filled. Therefore, to struggle against desire is to struggle against the soul itself.
The essence of spiritual work is not to overcome desire but to change the way we fill the vessel of the soul. We do this by shifting from a desire to receive (egoism) to a desire to give (God-likeness).
In this tradition, too, there is mention of three kinds of desire. The first type is bodily desires. The second type is social desires. The third type consists of “desires for the pleasure of resemblance to the Creator’s attributes.”
It’s easy to see the parallels between the first and second kinds of desire in Buddhism and Kabbalah. What’s particularly interesting to me is the shift in the formulation of the third desire — from non-resistance to suffering (from the desire not to be, not to feel pain) to a desire for creation (because we and the Creator are made of the same substance).
According to Kabbalah, if a person can feel fulfilled in life through satisfying only the first two types of desires, they are considered an ordinary person. The true essence of the soul only begins to reveal itself when pleasure from the bodily senses, human relationships, and social activity is no longer enough to bring a sense of inner satisfaction — to “fill” the void of emptiness.
Since the soul’s desire is identical to the desire of Spirit, the only way it can be fulfilled is through being filled with the light of the Creator (the higher light).
In other words, the Creator (God) and the creation (the human being) are intimately connected, as they are two aspects of the same reality — the Soul is the instrument of Spirit on Earth.
- The goal of the spiritual path in Kabbalah is creativity with an altruistic purpose — service to humanity.
Desire In Anthroposophy
The differentiation between three distinct kinds of desire can also be found in Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy. He speaks of the “threefold soul,” which arises from the astral body — the body of desires.
The lowest part of this body is the “sentient soul”; in the middle lies the “intellectual soul”; and the highest part is the “consciousness soul.” Depending on which part predominates in a person, we can distinguish three different types of people — the sensory, the intellectual, and the conscious type. In other words, the differentiation between personality types stems from their dominant form of desire.
The dominant desire of the sensory type is to derive pleasure through the senses of the body. Their emotional reactions are crude and entirely subject to affect if they do not receive what they want.
“When someone is still deeply immersed in the sentient soul and feels comfortable in it, it may happen that after a good meal, they pat their belly out of satisfaction. This is a sign that the sentient soul is still too dominant.” (GA 108, 21.11.1909)
A person who has developed the intellectual part of the soul is someone capable of reflecting on their experiences, and thus has greater control over their emotional reactions. Their intellect helps them master their instincts and impulses, and also to understand and influence the material world. The tremendous scientific progress that has improved material life conditions today is largely due to the development of the intellectual soul.
“A child who burns itself learns, through reflection, that fire burns. Likewise, a person no longer blindly follows instincts, drives, and passions, but uses thought to create ways to fulfill them. This is what we call ‘material culture.’ It consists of thought serving the sentient soul. Incalculable intellectual forces are devoted to this aim. Thought builds ships, trains, telegraphs, telephones — all of which largely serve to satisfy the needs of the sentient soul… When someone is deeply immersed in the intellectual soul, they affirm a truth by pounding their chest.” (GA 108, 21.11.1909)
The consciousness soul is the last to develop. It differs from the intellectual soul in that the individual’s mind is primarily concerned with moral values and the meaning of life. Its core desire is for knowledge of truth — not scientific truth, but truth as a moral principle: that which lies behind the physical laws of the visible world and is the true cause of its manifestation.
The behavior of such individuals is regulated by beliefs that do not stem from personal preferences or aversions. In such people, the ethical sense is most highly developed, and egoism has been transformed into self-awareness free from selfishness.
“For human beings, the consciousness soul is currently the highest and most autonomous member of the soul, but at the same time, it is also the most isolated from the rest of the world. A person immersed in the consciousness soul can be the most solitary in their inner life, isolated from the outer world… Someone deeply embedded in the consciousness soul may grasp their nose when thinking deeply about something.” (GA 108, 21.11.1909)
- Anthroposophy defines itself as a spiritual science whose aim is to aid the human being in self-knowledge as a spiritual being.
Desire In Gnosticism
In Gnosticism, the division of people based on their dominant type of desire and capacity for knowledge (gnosis) is particularly pronounced. There are three primary types of people, each with a distinct orientation toward the world: hylics, psychics, and pneumatics.
Hylics (from the Greek hylē – “matter”) are those whose nature is entirely bound to the material world. They seek happiness in satisfying bodily needs — food, sex, security, and comfort. For them, reality is limited to the sensory and the transient.
Psychics (from psychē – “soul”) are oriented toward more refined desires — human connection, love, recognition, moral principles, and social meaning. They are capable of faith, seek virtue and order in the world, but lack full access to spiritual knowledge. Their happiness comes from the realization of soulful aspirations.
Pneumatics (from pneuma – “spirit”) are those in whom the spark of the Divine lives. They are drawn toward eternal, imperishable things — toward the knowledge of the true Self, communion with Spirit, and service to something greater than themselves. Though they dwell in this world, they do not belong to it; their heart longs for a reality beyond matter and time.
- The goal of the spiritual path in Gnosticism is that through gnosis — deep, transformative knowledge of the soul’s divine origin — the pneumatic may be freed from the bonds of the mortal world and return to their true home: the fullness of the Divine, known as the Pleroma.
Desire and The Three Stages of Incarnation
Here is another esoteric theory related to the above topic. According to it, our dominant desire is shaped by the soul’s age. Naturally, this idea presumes belief in reincarnation and especially the theory of the three stages of incarnation — involution, transformation, and evolution.
Understanding this theory offers further insight into the differences between the three types of desire, placing them in a temporal continuum. Personally, this knowledge has helped me most to develop patience and understanding toward people who once used to trigger me deeply with the things they did or said.
The core ideas of this theory are as follows. The dominant desire of young souls — those in the stage of involution — is to anchor themselves in matter. Their consciousness is bodily oriented, and life doesn’t present them with great trials.
The second stage — transformation — includes people who have outgrown purely bodily desires and are capable of reflection. They can ponder different aspects of life, including their own inner contradictions. These individuals are dominated by the desire for refinement — of both themselves and the world around them.
The third stage — evolution — encompasses the oldest souls. These are people whose consciousness is consistently dominated by the desire to serve the Whole and to realize the hidden interconnectedness between all beings.
- The primary goal of those in the evolutionary stage is the return to the Source.
Desire In Psychotherapy
People who seek psychotherapy often suffer from the frustration of the second and third types of desire — the psychics and pneumatics. Accordingly, the therapeutic approach for them is different.
At first glance, the former might benefit from the various forms of so-called “ego-oriented therapy,” while the latter might turn to a “spiritually oriented psychotherapy” (more on this in the article “Gardening in Good and Bad Times”). In practice, however, things are rarely so simple.
There are spiritual people (pneumatics) who need to learn to build strong ego boundaries, because their vessel — their earthly self — has very thin walls and cannot withstand the intensity that arises from deeper layers of the soul. Their challenge is not to flee from the suffering that stems from the density and limitations of material life, and to discover how to creatively embody their individual form on Earth.
There are soulful people (psychics) for whom the time has come for their soul to move to the next level of development and “take the Turn” on the way back to the Source. They undergo the opposite process — spiritualizing their desires and aligning their ego-will with the higher will.
The reality of living life is a complex mix of both, and it takes great wisdom to discover our individual way of uniting Heaven and Earth within ourselves. In this, we can rely only on inner orientation, so I’ll briefly repeat the essential points I’ve touched upon elsewhere on the site.
Ego-oriented psychotherapies help a person become aware of their inner conflicts, to integrate rejected parts of the personality, to step out of a victim mentality, and to take responsibility for their life by building healthy ego boundaries between themselves and others.
As a result of this self-knowledge, they gain control over their lives and reach higher levels of mental health, fulfillment, and personal satisfaction. The criterion for working at this level of suffering is whether the issue arises from an inadequate conscious attitude, emotional immaturity, or unhealed trauma from the past.
If this is the case, transformation of experience lies within the zone of personal ego-control.
The healing of the “third kind of suffering,” however, requires a wholly different approach because it stems from experiences that arise from deeper layers of the personality. A factor within the psyche awakens that suffers from the density of material life and the meaninglessness of small human goals.
Psychological work with this kind of suffering inevitably calls for a different method, because the person is dealing with forces that are not merely personal. Instead of a personal shadow to integrate, one must confront and alchemize a collective Shadow. Another name for this process is transformation.
The deeper we venture into the soul, the more our freedom grows — while the personal ego-will diminishes. This paradox is most eloquently portrayed in the image of the Son of God hanging on the cross. At that extreme point of powerlessness, the only free will that remains is how we respond while drinking from the bitter cup.
Conclusion
And so, the third kind of desire is the Soul’s longing to return to the Source. This desire explains the psychic dynamics behind the “third kind of suffering,” the “introversion of libido,” the “Taking of the Turn,” and the journey on the “Way Back.”
And this path is one of diminishment. Of stripping away. Of dying and being reborn. The way back to union with the Whole passes through a gate narrower than the eye of a needle. That is why the essence of the third kind of desire is the readiness not to flee from existential suffering.
I’m beginning to understand ever more deeply Jung’s words that “man’s suffering does not arise from his sins but from the god who wants to become perfect in man.” (CW 18, Para 1681)
The goal of this spiritual path is redemption — the desire to unite within ourselves the two faces of the paradoxical God and thereby participate in the renewal of our shared soul, bringing more peace and harmony to the world around us.
— Kameliya Hadzhiyska
The 29-day program dedicated to psychological work with human desire is suitable for people undergoing processes of spiritual transformation — which, at their core, are transformations of our desiring nature.
It helps to understand emotional reactions on two complementary levels of interpretation: emotional and spiritual intelligence (that is, the level of the second and third kinds of desire).
