Needs can be fulfilled, but desires cannot be. Desire is a need gone mad. Needs are simple, they come from nature; desires are very complex they don't come from nature.
They are created by the mind. Needs are moment to moment, they are created out of life itself. Desires are not moment to moment, they are always for the future. They are not created by life itself, they are projected by the mind.
Desires are projections, they are not really needs. This is the first thing to be understood, and the deeper you understand, the better. What is desire? It is movement of the mind into the future. Need belongs to this moment — if you are hungry it is a need, and has to be fulfilled. and it can be fulfilled.
There's no problem about it. If you are thirsty, you are thirsty here and now, you have to seek water. It should be fulfilled — so it is a life need. But desires are not like that.
You desire to be the president of a country. It is not a need, it is an ambition, it is an ego projection into the future. Or you desire heaven — that too is in the future; or you desire God — that too is in the future.
Remember, needs are always here and now — they are existential. And desires are never here and now — they are non-existential. They are just mental, in the mind. And they cannot be fulfilled because their very nature is to move into the future.
They are just like the horizon you see. It seems that just nearby somewhere the earth meets the sky. It is so apparent! You can walk there! But you could go on walking forever and ever, and the distance will remain the same; always somewhere ahead the earth will be meeting the sky. But you will never reach that place, that point where the earth meets the sky. They never meet.
This is just an appearance, what Hindus call MAYA: it appears, but it is not so. It appears if you are standing at a distance. The nearer you come the more you realise that it is not so. The horizon moves further ahead, and the distance between you and it always remains the same.
The distance between you and your desire always remains the same. How can you fulfill it? If you desire ten thousand rupees, you may get them some day. But by the time you get them, the desire will have gone ten thousand times ahead again.
You have one thousand rupees; the desire will ask for ten thousand. Now you have ten thousand; the desire will ask for one hundred thousand. The distance remains the same. You may have one hundred thousand — it makes no difference. Ten times again, the desire will remain the same.
Needs are simple. They can be fulfilled. You feel hungry and you eat; you feel thirsty and you drink; you feel sleepy, you go to bed.
Desires are very cunning and complex. You are frustrated, but not because of needs. You are frustrated because of desires. And if desires take too much of your energy you will be unable to fulfill your needs also, because who is there to fulfill them? You are moving into the future; you are thinking of the future; your mind is dreaming.
Who is there to fulfill ordinary needs of the day? You are not there. And you would like to remain hungry but reach the horizon. You would like to postpone needs so that the whole energy moves towards the desire. But in the end, you find that the desire is not fulfilled, and because needs have been neglected, in the end you are just a ruin. And the time that is lost cannot be regained; you cannot go back.
There is a story told of one old wise man, whose name was Mencius. He was a follower of Confucius and he died when he was very, very old. Somebody asked him: If you were given life again, how will you start it?
Said Mencius: I will pay more attention to my needs and less attention to my desires. And this realisation will come to you also. But it always comes very late and then life is no more in your hands. If you were given life again….
Needs are beautiful; desires are ugly. Needs are bodily; desires are psychological. But look at your so-called saints and sages: they always condemn your needs and always help your desires to be projected.
They say: What are you doing? Just eating? Sleeping? Wasting your life? Try to reach heaven! Heaven is the ultimate desire. Paradise is waiting for you, and you are wasting your life on ordinary things — just vegetating. Stand up and run, because there is not much time left! Reach! Knock at the door of heaven! Reach God! But don't stand there!
They always condemn your needs and they always help your desires. That's why the world has become so ugly — everybody is full of desires and nobody's needs are fulfilled. That which can be fulfilled is neglected and that which cannot be fulfilled is being fed. This is the misery of man.
Simply drop the very idea, because there is no future, only the present exists.
And how beautiful it is! when you feel hungry, you eat — there is no future. And when you are so much into eating it becomes a paradise unto itself. That's what Jesus says: Don't think of the morrow. Look at the lilies of the field, they don't accumulate, they don't think, they are not worried about the future. They flower here and now. Look at the blooming lilies — the tomorrow will take care of itself.
You just be here and now. This moment is enough, don't ask for more. This is the real sage — the one who lives in the moment, for whom this moment is enough. He is fulfilled.
There is no heaven for him, he is heaven himself. There is no God for him, he has become divine himself. This will be very difficult, because whatsoever I am saying is against many centuries of teaching and poisoning.
Eat when you feel hungry, and in that moment make eating a celebration. Celebrate! Because who knows, next time you may not be there. The hunger may not be there, nor this beautiful bread. Thirst may not be there — nor may this river be there. Drink it! Let yourself be here so concentrated that time stops; because time is not moving — your mind moves. If you are in this moment, totally concentrated, enjoying it with your total being, time stops. There is no movement of time, there is no horizon and no running after it. But everybody is in a hurry to reach the horizon.
OSHO