feeling better

genkaku

Worth investigating or just a bit of nonsense ...?

Everyone has times when they hoped to feel better. At the basic level, maybe it's better-than-sick, better-than-sad, better-than-ouch, better-than-hungry, or, if you're on a big-bang-Buddhist bender, better-than-deluded, perhaps.

OK, feeling better would be nice.

But "better" by definition carries with it a something-else, something against which to compare or contrast the "better" that is sought or attained. So by making a reality of whatever is "better," a foundation and support system is also created for what is "worse" ... in short creating more of what anyone might hope to escape in the first place... sort of an out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-frying-pan effort and direction... seeking relief by imposing discomfort.

It sounds as wacky to me as it sounds true and human.

Is there a better mousetrap? I'd ask the question, but we all know how reliable 'better' mouse traps are.

Sabre

Sounds to me like a familiar trap. Every time you want a state that is not happening now, you are at the same time also creating discontent with what is here now, and that's a major source of unhappiness. That's why the Buddha said to go beyond the desires, to let them go. And for a while certain desires may be helpful, like the desire to be happy or to be more loving, but in the end even they have to go.

I particularly find the want to be more content to be very useful. Because contentment doesn't compare one thing to the other, it just accepts what is. So it avoids the trap. To cultivate contentment is a way to go beyond desires.

how

My practise is pretty simple. How can I be open & present to what is.
This is a meditative watchfulness for where to place my next step to aid in this.

The only hindrance to this has been my own conditioning, so my meditative practise is just how I stop feeding my conditioned impulses to all arising phenomena. In the absence of my conditioning, the world unfolds as compassion, love & wisdom.

In the vehicle of your practise, wants & hopes start being left behind as one abandons the driving to something much vaster than our little self.

Jeffrey

I discovered this in my mind (it had always been there) maybe strongly in the past two weeks or months. When I think of what I do with my time I don't think what I want to do. I think of the feeling I want to get from doing that. So it makes a lot of suffering. If I just think "ok do carving" or "ok videogames" then I am interested in the activities and I am not creating the dichotomy. But I think I look for what feeling to get and then say "oh poo this is not fun". I had a bad patch this past week but this morning I am feeling good. Mornings I feel good usually and then as the day and the drowsy meds kick in it is harder to be 'cheery'.

So you could say the past week has been great because I am actually sensing the four noble truths.