what if even meditation

Vajraheart

is only a temporary pleasure? sigh...

ms vh here once again :P

DaltheJigsaw

It is.
The key, or at least for me, is to be in the meditative state at all times. Being mindful and focused on everything one does. Even when I sleep I am still meditating.

Vajraheart

then what, once i never wake up, what was the point :S

Cloud

Meditation isn't meant to be pleasurable. There is pleasure associated with meditation because the mind finds freedom in letting go, but really meditation is meant to show us our true nature so that we can let go in every moment of our lives (not just in meditation). If we meditate to bliss-out, we miss the point and make it about temporary pleasure instead of finding peace.

genkaku

Where there is doubt, the human tendency is to praise. Meditation provides a chance to relax ... and stop praising stuff.

Mountains

I thought you were supposed to get cookies after you meditated?

Dang it!

taiyaki

the goal is to change the mind and to see clearly moment to moment.

all of us have a question. whether it is why are we here or what am i? we all have this deep question and it is different for all of us. in my humble opinion it is when such question grows to become large and unforgiving do we sincerely start examining what is in front of us.

in seeing suffering and the possible cessation of suffer we can truly be compassionate to ourselves. in such moment there is a release and natural letting go. in such letting go we have the potential to bring awareness onto itself.

contentment is the goal, but contentment isn't something to be achieved as that would destroy the purpose of an unconditional happiness. contentment is merely the natural state when there is no clinging and ignorance. thus we can be content wherever and whenever. such is the purpose of meditation. to penetrate our minds so that we can see what is really here.

if the mind can create objects and consciousness is watching the objects then why identify with the objects? and if consciousness itself can be turned into an object then why identify with consciousness?

riverflow

If meditation is a temporary pleasure then you aren't doing zazen-- that's just escapism. In a certain sense, mediation is a way of facing the world, not turning away from it.

“When we’re deluded there’s a world to escape. When we’re aware, there’s nothing to escape.” ~ Bodhidharma, “Wake-Up Sermon” (translated by Red Pine)

From a note to myself I wrote:

Don’t think of zazen as a doorway out, an escape away from everyday living——but rather as a doorway in, leading you toward everyday living. We engage much less with reality than we realise——instead we preoccupy ourselves with chasing endless thoughts we take for the world. Used as merely an escape, can you really call it zazen?

Jeffrey

If it is so then what else can we do but face reality bravely. We may die but what else can we do than make our life simple? Open to experience. No attainment.