Is there a word to describe the desire to not have desires

Basically the title. I want a word to describe wanting to not want. For example, if I wanted use this word in a sentence to say I don’t want to be materialistic:

I wish I could be more [insert word] with materialism because it’s too much work to keep getting stuff.


The word apathetic, already suggested in a comment, can be traced back to the Greek word for the Stoic ideal that incorporates what you have in mind. It can be used in the present-day English for those who pursue similar ideals, but only if the context prepares the readers/listeners to take it that way, for example, by explicitly referring to Stoicism. Without such a context, the word is likely to be understood by the present-day English speakers to stand for something highly undesirable, rather than an ideal to be pursued.

One device that is sometimes used to make it clear that one wishes to refer to the Stoic ideal, rather than to the apathy in the sense of the present-day psychology, is to use the transliteration of the original Greek term for the former: apatheia. One can thus say, for example, that one is pursuing apatheia in one’s life, and one will be understood, by the philosophically educated, to be pursuing some Stoicism-inspired ideal. The obvious disadvantage of this device is that only people with at least some philosophical education will ‘get’ it. It should also be noted that apatheia is a noun, and that it might be awkward to try to make out of it an adjective that would work well within English sentences.

Another theory that incorporates what you have in mind is Buddhism. The word buddhist can sometimes be heard in everyday English conversations in the loose sense that covers that outlook that you are seeking to name, without implying a serious commitment to Buddhism in all its details. If you use the word that way, you will probably be understood. You should, however, bear in mind that those who are seriously committed to Buddhism may disapprove of the word being used too loosely.

None of these terms, incidentally, works well with the phrase ‘with materialism’ in your sample sentence. You should probably say that you reject materialism (in the relevant sense) separately from saying what it is that you do accept and pursue.