To begin with your desires: Usually, desires can be classified into three:
A ‘self’ or Nafas (what causes it to be Nafas-i-ammara) wants to enjoy beauty and charms; it wants to show itself distinguished or unique from others; it wants to exercise power and authority. So the issue is that it wants to be in an advantageous position in all situations of life. Peep into yourself or Nafas to know how do you deal with this issue? Whether this is an issue with you or not?
At the same time, a ‘self’ find itself in a world which is unpredictable by all means including the conditions of luxury and joy, power and wealth etc. This exposes the role of ‘fear’ in human affairs. So the question of survival and further to get control over the means which ensure survival as per the conditions of best quality life available to others is a big problem and the source of fear.
One more issue is the over estimation of your fears. This issue makes us magnify our fears even regarding the little things of our needs that if this and this doesn’t happen, we will be completely destroyed. Later on, when we fail in achieving that particular thing, we find that it wasn’t as serious as you perceived. Actually, this problem is due to one’s strong and infinite love for the world and its attractions.
Another major issue is that desires and fears remain interconnected. In the light of this principle, to peep into yourself as deep as you can is the big challenge of self-discovery and personality construction.
It is out of this fusion of desires and fears that a person comes to construct what can be called as socially oriented desires or your day-dreams. These are related with particular job, particular spouse, particular model of a car etc.
Exercise
Try to avoid oversimplification that you are fully aware of your desires and dreams. This is not the case particularly about your fears. To avoid this, First, note down your desires and fears. Count and enlist them.
Second, make a distinction between your fulfilled desires and unfulfilled ones. Similarly, also enlist the fears you are aware of and those to which you are unaware of.
Third, sort out the positive desires and fears from those of negative ones.
Analyzing yourself since childhood, make a distinction between the urges of your ‘self’ and what your later came to develop as your dreams as a result of social interactions, schooling etc., Try to keenly realize the effects of these urges as well as dreams on your everyday routine: How much time you devote for them?
Do you think that you are doing enough to achieve them?
Do you find the energy enough to control your negative desires?
Write down the steps particular to you which give you a self-control over these negative desires.
Note down the effects of these negative desires on your faculty of imagination.
Do you have the tendency to move and fly into the forlorn worlds of your ‘wishful thinking’ due to the rusting of your faculty of imagination?
Haven’t this tendency marred the powers and otentials of your brain?
Do you think that you have the traces of evil genius?
Did you try to get the matter done or the problems to be solved by some kind of tricks?
What ways you have at your disposal to get rid of this habit of yourself?
Did you ever find any impulse to trace out or to reach the truth? Do you find that your family / surrounding environment happen to be supportive in this regard? Regarding your fears, also note down
Can you understand some of the positive aspects on yourself? For example, how largely the fear of parents or the fear of earning bad reputation has stopped you in indulging in bad things?
The similar is noted about the fear of God what is termed as Taqwa. How much Taqwa you can find in yourself which has made you avoid the wrong?
