Anhedonia

NamelessRiver

Ok, when I feel low as hell I can usually cheer myself up with some techniques. For me it is "easy" to see that life isn't such a hellish place.

However, the real problem is when I stop having pleasure with life experiences. It is not that I say 'life is unfair', 'it sucks' or that I feel like I wanna die. It is just that everything is blah...and you feel like a waste of space and without direction, even though you don't feel sad.

How do you deal with that?

MatSalted

NamelessRiver wrote: »

However, the real problem is when I stop having pleasure with life experiences. It is not that I say 'life is unfair', 'it sucks' or that I feel like I wanna die. It is just that everything is blah...and you feel like a waste of space and without direction, even though you don't feel sad.

How do you deal with that?

That is the human condition, isn't it? Ennuie?

Blah...

Meh...

Whateva...

I am sure every emperor and peasant in history has experienced it...

Isn't it dukka?



Mat

jinzang

That feeling is actually helpful. Trungpa Rinpoche called it "cool boredom." You should simply watch it without trying to change it.

DhammaDhatu

NamelessRiver wrote: »

It is just that everything is blah...and you feel like a waste of space and without direction, even though you don't feel sad.

It is important to set a direction in life.

If our inner desire is for a normal worldly life, such as good job, secure house, nice car, wife & children, etc, we should set our aspiration in that direction.

But if our inner desire is not for these things, we have no choice but to follow the spiritual path.

The Buddha taught there are three kinds of feelings, namely, pleasant feeling, unpleasant feeling and neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant feeling.

The feeling of 'blah' is neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant feeling (adukkhamasukhāya vedanāya). This is a very subtle feeling, leading to the defilement of confusion in the Dependent Origination.

On the spiritual path, we contemplate that feeling, be one with that feeling, until that feeling passes away.

The dissolving & passing away of that 'blah feeling' is a step towards purification & clarity of mind.

The Buddha said:

When touched by a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain, if one does not discern, as it actually is present, the origination, passing away, allure, drawback or escape from that feeling, then one's ignorance-obsession gets obsessed. That a person — without uprooting ignorance-obsession with regard to a feeling of neither pleasure nor pain, without abandoning ignorance and giving rise to clear knowing — would put an end to suffering & stress in the here & now: such a thing isn't possible.

Chachakka Sutta: The Six Sextets

Kind regards

NamelessRiver

So you guys are saying that this is actually a feeling instead of a lack of feeling? Haven't looked at it from that point of view.

jinzang

Yes, it's a feeling that something is lacking. You are comparing how you are now with how you would like it to be or imagine it should be. Simply relax into how things are right now.

Dazzle

.

Feelings come and go, they're impermanent. Relax..... breathe.....:)







.

DhammaDhatu

NamelessRiver wrote: »

So you guys are saying that this is actually a feeling instead of a lack of feeling? Haven't looked at it from that point of view.

Indeed it is. But as I said, it is a very subtle feeling.

Generally, human beings are only used to experiencing gross pleasant & unpleasant feelings, which they run to or run away from.

But when a person stops running and sits for a while, the third kind of feeling will occur.

Kind regards

DD