513. With the commencement of "thinking" the individual begins to take part consciously in the combining of energies. By thinking he is gradually able to regulate the attraction and repulsion of the energies. In this way he becomes able to intervene in the automatic functioning. He can bring about new automatic functions and destroy the old ones. It is this conscious intervention on the part of the individual into his own manifestation of energy, which is the basis for what we call "development".
      This conscious intervention is supported by "desire". "Desire" in its purest form is perceived by the being as "longing" for this or for that which may be desired. This again means that the greatest supporting power in a living being is sensed as "longing". All conscious thought is stamped with "longing". There is not a single form of manifestation produced by the living being which is not in itself an expression for one or another form of fulfilled or unfulfilled "longing". That which we usually call "longing" is thus, in its deepest analysis, the I's primordial force, the I's absolutely unshakeable connection to life, which in this case means the connection to "X3". "Longing" constitutes the "ad-hesive" by which the I is connected to existence. "Longing" is itself the blaze of the "highest fire's" flames, which again means the penetrating power of the all-sustaining sexual principle. Behind every thought, every nuance of consciousness, there is "longing" or the fulfilment of "longing". Whatever the being wishes to love or to hate, to caress or to wound, these forms of manifestation will, to the same degree, be an expression for longing, in that to "wish" is the same as to "long for". A being's entire physical and mental manifestation is simply the fulfilment of wishes or longings. This fulfilment becomes apparent as merely constituting the outer details and sensations of "desire" in the consciousness. "Desire" is thus the mother of all attraction and repulsion and thereby of the entire life of consciousness. All "thoughts" are the offspring of "desire".