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Why do we crave stimulation?
betaboy
Veteran
I can understand people craving for material things - tv, gadgets, etc. - they have tangible benefits, plus it gives some people a sense of accomplishment. But why do we love stimulation so much? What's the reason - in terms of evolution (is it a survival mechanism?) or in Buddhism (perpetuation of consciousness)?
Animals and insects can do without it. What is it about humans that makes us desire constant stimulation (and not merely material things)?
Animals and insects can do without it. What is it about humans that makes us desire constant stimulation (and not merely material things)?
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We are the inertia of a lie that we are inherently separate from everything else.
Our identity is the responding support structure for this lie. Dependent Origination will lay out the manner or the reason why stimulation arises and how this cycle keeps perpetuating itself.
It will also show where these cycles can be unravelled as well.
It is partly an evolutionary impact and development of childrens play, which is about exploration and hence being open to new potential survival niches . . .
"I remember one occasion waking up and having to squeeze my face and my chest and thinking to myself 'Am I still alive?'" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7199769.stm
spend some time in a sensory deprivation/flotation tank and it might change your thoughts/perspective about evolution, consciousness, and ideas of stimulation.
With Sense Gates as condition, Contact arises
With Contact as condition, Feeling arises
With Feeling as condition, Craving arises
With Craving as condition, Clinging arises
Ajahn Sucitto states:
However, taṇnhā, meaning "thirst," is not a chosen kind of desire, it's a reflex. It's the desire to pull something in and feed on it, the desire that's never satisfied because it just shifts from one sense base to another, from one emotional need to the next, from one sense of achievement to another goal. It's the desire that comes from a black hole of need, however small and manageable that need is. The Buddha said that regardless of its specific topics, this thirst relates to three channels: sense-craving (kāmataṇhā); craving to be something, to unite with an experience (bhavataṇhā); and craving to be nothing, or to dissociate from an experience (vibhavataṇhā).
Walpola Rahula states:
It is this "thirst", desire, greed, craving, manifesting itself in various ways, that gives rise to all forms of suffering and the continuity of beings. But it should not be taken as the first cause, for there is no first cause possible as, according to Buddhism, everything is relative and inter-dependent. Even this "thirst", taṇhā, which is considered as the cause or origin of dukkha, depends for its arising (samudaya) on something else, which is sensation (vedanā), and sensation arises depending on contact (phassa), and so on and so forth goes on the circle which is known as Conditioned Genesis (Paṭicca-samuppāda)... So taṇhā, "thirst", is not the first or the only cause of the arising of dukkha. But it is the most palpable and immediate cause, the "principal thing" and the "all-pervading thing". Hence in certain places of the original Pali texts themselves the definition of samudaya or the origin of dukkha includes other defilements and impurities (kilesā, sāsavā dhammā), in addition to taṇhā "thirst" which is always given the first place. Within the necessarily limited space of our discussion, it will be sufficient if we remember that this "thirst" has as its centre the false idea of self arising out of ignorance.
But, you can consider almost anything a form of stimulation. Some things are forms that distract us from anything going on inside of us, our emotions, our fears, and so on. Other things are simply things that our senses pick up because that is what the human body does. Some of it is just how we function biologically, it's how we learn about the world around us and make decisions with regards to that world. But in many cases we seek stimulation to escape parts of ourselves we are incapable of or too afraid of dealing with.
We naturally detect and react to stimulation within the natural order of things.
I doubt there is a single reason or if there is, it would be faceted far beyond what might be considered reasonable causality in the human context.
I'm not sure it stands that animals and insects do not react to stimulation, rather the opposite is held for them to be classified alive.
Anyways we crave for using our brain; the whole complex of experiencing anything at all, feeling the emotions that come with it and being puzzled about things. I suppose this craving is part of evolution. We need keep the brain in shape and for that we need to use it on a regular basis.
In meditation we use our brain in various ways; which makes it not such a torture to many of us.
Part of it is that we zoom in, we become more sensitive. We experience very small things but they make a bigger impression. Maybe an important part is the fixed posture of meditation. I suppose it is the cause of endorphin production in the brain.
When we meditate we are not "above" craving for stimulation. We train our brain to find the stimulation very nearby.
We all have this inner angst, this restless dissatisfaction. And keeping busy drowns out the "noise" of our dissatisfaction.
This is why meditation is so hard .. we no longer distract ourselves from ourselves, but instead turn and face it.
And this is why meditation is so effective in solving the dilemma of how to be happy with life.
one is defined by boundary...what one can feel, think, imagine, dream, etc...
beyond the boundary is "no self"
by diving in to the self...one becomes boundless
by diving in to everything else...one dances among the jewels
dancing among the jewels...one dances upon the dead with wild abandonment