Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

According to Abraham Maslow, our needs are arranged in the form of a hierarchy (illustrated in the pyramid below), with basic needs at the bottom. Basic needs must be satisfied first. When those needs are satisfied, safety needs can then be satisfied, and so on up the pyramid.

So by definition, those needs higher up on the pyramid cannot be realized until the lower needs are satisfied first.

Thanks Vesuvius. Your answer explains why I am not enlightened yet.

Oh, Boy, yeah! Those Basic Desires are really...basic! I also was going to mention Maslow and his pyramid, but that has already been covered...It is hard to be on a spiritual high (so-to-speak) if you haven't had anything to eat for a couple of days, and it doesn't look very likely that food will come for tomorrow, either. (What is interesting is that the American Indians would go on "Vision Quests, and they deliberately did not eat until they had experienced their "vision"...which is confusing, at least to me!)

But along came Jesus, and He told us to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and heal the sick...in other words, get out there, and provide people those basic needs. Why? Because, then they can move up on Maslow's pyramid, to the next level of experience...and maybe get to the point where they can see their own psychological needs- maybe, for a brief moment, experience the feeling of being taken care of by God-and this changes them forever. The spiritual world is exposed to us when our basic needs are met (hopefully).

I have been on the receiving end of charity, and while it is a little hard to admit that you need food, clothes, and so on-but when I felt the caring of the people, and realized that they were feeling joy in their giving, I was able to get past my pride, and just enjoy feeling safe for that moment.

And in one of those moments, I found the start of the pathway to God and my spiritual journey...which would not have happened if those things had not been given to me...

That is how important basic needs are, and why it is so important to give what we can to others.

Blessings, and Happy New Year 2010,

Jaianniah

I believe so really, there is a zen story that says if you can desire anything as much as you desire air when you are drowning you will get it. We seem to desire nothing as much as air when we are drowning, I think that is the burning desire that Napoleon Hill talked about, that desire that you will get this, you will have that, that is the desire that pulls you toward what you really want. That is the desire that makes you go for it, it is not work now it is a conquest! Like a mountain climber climbs to the top of a mountain, if he looks at the climb as work and effort and really doesn't have a strong desire to conquer that mountain that is stronger than his desire to try to climb the mountain, he may get a quarter way up if he is lucky before saying "ohhhh forget it this is too hard, I can't make it, it was never meant for me to reach the top I guess, the odds were against me, the universe conspired against me, God doesn't want me to make it, why do others have it so easy and make it, it is not fair! I just am not good enough, I can't make it, the mountain is too high, the climb is too steep, every time I try to go up I slide back down, I don't know what I am doing, I don't know what I was thinking, I am destined to just never get up that mountain! It just wasn't for me, others have better equipment, look at those that made it they were born into it! I am not that lucky!"

MAN if we put as much effort into getting up that mountain as we do coming up with excuses why we can't get up that mountain we would be there by now!!!

But if it is as a conquest to get up to the top of that mountain! Wow nothing will stop me from getting there not rain, sleet, snow, hail, high wind, lightning, NOTHING! I am going to get there!

Then we do not see the effort or work we only see that goal and are excited every inch of progress we make increases the excitement! This same conquest is what made the Knights of the Templar go searching for the Holy Grail through all lands and adversity. Nothing was too much for them because nothing was more important than getting that Christ Grail! Their adversity they saw as progress not as work, not as obstacles, they had to fight many battles but they did so with a mission not to win the battle but to find the Holy Grail! Every obstacle was as a stepping stone to getting closer to the Grail.

Make your goals as important, make your goals your Holy Grail, then see how hard you will fight to get to them, you will be unstoppable!