I like good films, but I do not always desire to watch them. I enjoy flowers blossoming in the botanic garden, but I do not always desire to bring them back home and keep them for myself.
Liking something or someone means there is concordance with your value. It is natural. There is no need to suppress it. All we have to do is to acknowledge its existence and also acknowledge that this idea, like any other, is flowing down our thought stream, and we should not mistake it as ourselves.
Desire is a state of dissatisfaction and insufficiency. Desires indicate no value attachment. Desires put ourselves in a state of unhappiness until we get what we desire; the relief, though, is always transient (what I learned from Naval Ravikant).
When studying Buddhist philosophy, I have sometimes mistaken my liking for my desires; I try to suppress my liking because I do not want it to bring unhappiness. This suppression has confused me and even pushed me towards desiring what I deny myself. The separation of these two allows me to appreciate what I like, enjoy the present moment more without fearing the future.
