“Desire is the starting point of all achievement,
Not a hope, not a wish,
But a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” – Napoleon Hill
Yet the Buddha taught that desire is the root of suffering.
At first glance, the famous success teaching of Napoleon Hill and the spiritual insight of Gautama Buddha appear to contradict one another.
The reconciliation lies in the type of desire being referred to.
The Buddha was pointing to attachment – the compulsive craving of the egoic mind that says “I must have this in order to be complete.” When our happiness depends on external outcomes, we inevitably create anxiety, grasping, and disappointment. This is the desire that leads to suffering.
However, there is another kind of desire – what we might call inspired intention or creative impulse. This arises not from lack, but from the natural movement of life expressing itself through us.
Teachers such as Eckhart Tolle explain that when we are rooted in presence, action can still arise powerfully, but without psychological attachment to the outcome. One acts, creates, and contributes, yet one’s sense of identity is no longer dependent on success or failure.
Similarly, Michael A. Singer teaches that true freedom comes when we allow life to flow through us without clinging. We may still build, serve, create, and achieve – but we do so from openness rather than inner compulsion.
Seen in this light, Hill’s “burning desire” can be understood not as egoic craving, but as a focused clarity of intention – the willingness to commit energy, attention, and persistence toward something meaningful.
The difference is subtle but profound:
- Egoic desire says: “I need this to be whole.”
- Awakened intention says: “I am already whole, and from that wholeness I choose to create.”
When desire arises from lack, it produces suffering.
When intention arises from presence, it becomes a creative force.
Thus, achievement and awakening are not opposed.
The awakened person can still act with passion and purpose but does so without losing their inner freedom.
How does desire fit in with presence as taught by enlightened teachers such as Eckhart Tolle as against the desire for a future fulfilment. And how does sexual desire fit in with the Buddha’s teaching of desire and suffering?
This is an important question because it touches the difference between life energy moving naturally through us and the psychological craving of the mind.
Teachers such as Eckhart Tolle often explain that presence does not eliminate desire in the functional sense. Human beings will always experience impulses, creativity, preferences, and movement toward things in life. The body wants food, the mind may want to build something meaningful, and the heart may feel drawn toward connection. These are natural expressions of life.
What presence dissolves is not the movement of life, but the psychological attachment to the future as the source of fulfilment.
The egoic mind tends to live with an underlying assumption:
“When I achieve this, obtain that, or become something more, then I will finally feel complete.”
This is the kind of desire that creates inner tension. It pulls awareness out of the present moment and projects fulfilment into the future. If the outcome does not occur, suffering arises; if it does occur, the satisfaction is usually temporary and the mind quickly attaches to the next desire. In this sense, the Buddha’s insight about desire refers primarily to craving (tanhā) the compulsive grasping of the mind that seeks identity and completion in external conditions.
Presence changes the relationship to desire. As Michael A. Singer often explains, when we are inwardly free, we can still act, create, and pursue goals, but our happiness is no longer dependent on the outcome. Action then arises from clarity, inspiration, or service rather than from inner deficiency.
One might say that in awakened living:
The future may guide our actions, but it no longer defines our sense of self.
This means one can still feel a powerful creative impulse, what Napoleon Hill called a “burning desire”, but without the psychological contraction that says “my worth or happiness depends on this succeeding.” The action becomes an expression of life, not a search for completion.
Sexual Desire and the Buddha’s Teaching
Sexual desire sits in a particularly interesting place because it involves both natural biological energy and psychological craving.
From a Buddhist perspective, sexuality itself is not inherently the problem. The issue arises when sexual desire becomes attachment, compulsion, or identity-building. When the mind turns sexuality into a means of seeking validation, possession, or self-completion, it easily becomes a source of suffering leading to jealousy, obsession, guilt, or emotional dependence.
However, when sexuality is experienced with awareness, respect, and presence, it can simply be understood as a powerful expression of life energy. In many contemplative traditions, sexual energy is even recognised as a fundamental creative force of life.
From the perspective of presence:
- Unconscious sexuality tends to be driven by craving and psychological need
- Conscious sexuality arises from connection, affection, and shared presence.
In the first case, desire is trying to fill an inner gap.
In the second, the experience becomes an expression of wholeness already present.
In essence, the Buddha’s teaching is not that we must eliminate all desires or impulses, but that we must become aware of the attachment and identification that create suffering.
As awareness wakens, desire loses its compulsive quality. What remains is a more natural flow of life, including creativity, relationship, and even sexuality, experienced with greater freedom, clarity, and compassion.
Thus, the paradox resolves itself: awakening does not suppress life’s energies. Rather, it frees them from the grasping mind, allowing them to be lived with greater consciousness and harmony.