\section{Desire Seeks Equilibrium}

\lettrine[lraise=0.1]{N}{ot} all inner pull is the same. 
There's a difference between ``desire'' and ``longing.''

Desire arises from lack, seeks resolution, and returns the organism to equilibrium. Hunger, thirst, the need for warmth and reassurance: these are cyclical, returning, necessary. Even sex is fundamentally about maintaining the ongoing survival of the species.

Desire keeps life going. It is not lesser. 
It is foundational, the grammar of incarnation. 
Desire preserves the creature and the species. That is no small thing.

Longing is different in kind, not in moral rank. It does not seek equilibrium. It does not close the circuit. Desire is cyclical --- it recurs, is gratified, subsides, and returns. Longing is teleological --- it points beyond the present toward something not yet attained. 

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Desire keeps the organism going. Longing pulls the soul forward.

Desire says enough, for now. Longing says: not yet. 

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The difference between ``Desire'' and ``Longing'' contains most of what this book is about.

And crucially: Longing is never finally satisfied. 
There is always another horizon. This is not a defect. It is the shape of the thing itself --- and it is precisely this horizon-shaped quality that builds cathedrals, composes symphonies, unravels the secrets of the Cosmos, and impels human beings beyond the edge of the Known.
