"Anxiety and desire are two, often conflicting, orientations to the unknown. Both are tilted toward the future. Desire implies a willingness, or a need, to engage this unknown, while anxiety suggests a fear of it. Desire takes one out of oneself, into the possibility or relationship, but it also takes one deeper into oneself. Anxiety turns one back on oneself, but only onto the self that is already known."

Source : Mark Epstein (2006). “Open to Desire: The Truth About What the Buddha Taught”, p.35, Penguin

Mark Epstein

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