Surrender · “Let Go to Receive”
Making the Desires Few
To nourish and steady the mind by deliberately reducing one’s desires, so the heart is easier to keep clear and intact.
“To nourish the mind there is nothing better than to make the desires few.” The more wants crowd the mind, the more often the heart is lost; the fewer the wants, the more rarely. So reduce the clamour of wanting — moderate it, let desires lighten and pass — and the heart stays clearer. Few, not none.
What it is
This is Mencius’s most compact teaching on inner clarity: to nourish the mind, make the desires few. Where his cultivation practices grow something (the flood-like qi, the four sprouts), this one clears the ground — it releases the grip of wanting so the heart can stay intact (The Inner Creates the Outer).
Mencius’s reasoning is simple and behavioural: the more desires crowd the mind, the more often the heart is pulled off course; the fewer the desires, the more rarely it is lost. Reducing wants is, for him, the single best way to keep the deeper moral self (All Is One) clear and to remain the kind of person one means to be (The Inner Creates the Outer).
The Method
From the Mencius (Jin Xin II, 7B:35; Legge’s translation):
- Take the principle. Mencius states it plainly: “To nourish the mind there is nothing better than to make the desires few.” Of all ways to tend the heart, this is the one he singles out as best.
- See the link between desires and the lost heart. He gives the reasoning directly: “Here is a man whose desires are few — in some things he may not be able to keep his heart, but they will be few.” Few desires, few lapses.
- And the converse. “Here is a man whose desires are many — in some things he may be able to keep his heart, but they will be few.” Many desires, few moments of clarity. The weight of wanting is what carries the heart away.
- Practise by reducing, not eliminating. The instruction is few, not none — a steady moderation of wants rather than ascetic abolition. In practice: notice a clamouring desire, and let it lighten or pass rather than chasing it, so the mind settles back to clear. (Sourcing: “To nourish the mind there is nothing better than to make the desires few”, and the paired “Here is a man whose desires are few. /.whose desires are many.” passages are from Legge’s translation of Mencius 7B:35.)
Source & Lineage
The teaching is a single, much-quoted section of Mencius 7B:35 (Jin Xin, “Exhausting the Mind,” Part II). It pairs naturally with his larger doctrine that the moral heart is innate but easily strayed: fewer desires mean fewer occasions to lose it.
The theme of desire-reduction resonates with — though it is reasoned differently from — Daoist and Buddhist treatments.
Common refinements
Confusing few with none. Mencius says few, not zero. This is moderation of wanting, not the suppression of all desire or legitimate need.
- Turning it into self-punishment. The aim is a lighter, clearer mind — not harsh deprivation, which tends to backfire and crowd the mind with the very want being fought.
- Targeting needs instead of wants. Reduce the clamour of acquisitive or compulsive desire; do not starve genuine needs (rest, food, connection).
- Expecting it alone to do everything. For Mencius this clears the ground; the positive cultivation (growing the sprouts, nourishing the qi) still has to be done.