Letting go of sensual desire

Bunks

Rather than giving into sensual desire or trying to repress it, I understand that the Buddha taught we should let it come to the surface and explore it.

Is anyone able to give some advice on the best way to do this? Is this something to be done in meditation?

Thanks.

Jason

I think it's something that should be done both in meditation and in our regular, everyday lives whenever possible. The way it's often put in the Canon, one is encouraged to observe and understand the allure, drawback, and release from sensuality (MN 13). As Thanissaro Bhikkhu puts it in Mind Like Fire Unbound, "The Buddha recommended relinquishing attachment to sensuality, not because sensual pleasures are in any way evil, but because the attachment itself is dangerous: both in terms of the pain experienced when a relished pleasure inevitably ends, and in terms of the detrimental influence such attachment can have on a person's actions — and thus on his or her future condition."

ThailandTom

I recently had a slight issue with this very topic @Bunks. I realised that I was giving this desire/craving energy to grow for a long time which was only prolonging the amount of time it could be around, I was reviving it over and over after it has passed without realising because I was too caught up in it. In meditation you may be able to see how things come and go so simply and when you give them energy they feed off of it and hang around, are made stronger or come back from the dead. That is not to say you should stop considering things, I think it helps to see how easily things come and go on their own accord. I didn't really sit down with an intention to get rid of this desire, I merely sat down and observed what is going on upstairs. It may also help you to take a look at the 12 links if you want to do a little studying

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/snapshot05.htm

Bunks

Thanks a lot guys (as always). I actually found this most excellent talk on this very topic (amongst other things) online today. Worth a listen.

http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/96/talk/17512/

misecmisc1

it is not sensuality which is a problem, rather it is the way we relate to it - that can be a problem. if we see things as 'just they are', then we can see that there will be arising of sensual desire in mind and its ceasing, without us doing anything to make it cease.

taiyaki

basically that is what vajrayana is.

but being able to stay with desire or lust in such a way requires a tremendous base.

the trick is to bring it all to the body and then to cut through all ideas about lust and just physically feel what lust is.

but again one needs a base or rather one needs to be able to recognize the basic space of being. without that its basically impossible not to act or be confused by the power of lust, which in its pure form is the energy of passion or love.

Bunks

Thanks everyone......I think much more investigation is required on my part. This will take some time