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Many philosophers have claimed that the origin of suffering is desire, and that the way to happiness is to rid oneself of desire. Let us call this the ascetic view. This is half-right; they correctly identify the origin of the problem, but their proposed solution is far from correct.
The origin of suffering is indeed desire, or more specifically desire in conflict. Desires can be in conflict with eachother, or with the world. In the former case, the other philosophers are correct; if desires are contradictory, at least one must be discarded.
When desires are in conflict with the world, however, their proposed solution becomes anethama. Instead of taking action to resolve the problem by changing the world, they change their desires and define the problem out of existance. But this improves nothing! If one is dying of some disease, it doesn't matter if one is happy or not - one will die all the same. If one is being oppressed by a cruel dictator, one ought be unhappy!
More generally - if there is a conflict between one's desires and the state of the world, the conflict should be resolved by changing the world.
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