Afraid Of Pleasure ?

[Pierre]

What's the place of pleasure on the Way to Enlightenment ?

Sex, alcohol, food, smoking, coffee, TV, movies, video games, going out, etc.

Do you refrain from it ? Do you bask into it in order to fully experience your being ? Are you quite light about it, without too much concern ? Do you try to find it in healthy stuff ?

What's your experience ?

 

"Swâmiji* gave me another priceless thing. It needed a guru of his stature to make this gift, and yet it will seem insignificant to you : he taught me that I had a right to all sorts of little daily joys. He had used a word that I've often shared with you, the word re-creation. Re-creation re-creates our strength, our capacity to confront existence, our fervor to carry through our sadhana as we still have efforts to make while spontaneity has not yet settled. Swâmiji had given all its nobleness to this word, and I accepted to make it a part of the Way as precious as meditation, fasting, division of attention to keep a presence to myself, discrimination between Real and unreal." 

* Swâmi Prajnânpad (1891-1974)

Arnaud Desjardins, Pour une vie réussie, pp. 27-28 (my translation)

[Henri]

Doing it all and even more...

Once in an ashram I was the only one among about 5000 people who just continued smoking.

When I do something I do it for the full 100%, that includes meditation, drinking, writing, partying, traveling or whatever. My guru told me so. He even said to dive in the world and come back when I`m tired of it. So that`s what I`m doing up till today.

`When you follow fun, misery follows you. When you follow knowledge, fun follows you.`

[step1]

6 hours ago, Henri said:

Doing it all and even more...

Once in an ashram I was the only one among about 5000 people who just continued smoking.

When I do something I do it for the full 100%, that includes meditation, drinking, writing, partying, traveling or whatever. My guru told me so. He even said to dive in the world and come back when I`m tired of it. So that`s what I`m doing up till today.

`When you follow fun, misery follows you. When you follow knowledge, fun follows you.`

Great post.  Reminds me of Siddhartha's journey.

[Azrael]

7 hours ago, Pierre said:

What's the place of pleasure on the Way to Enlightenment ?

Great post @Pierre. I think this is one point that a lot of folks get completely wrong when it comes to spirituality and enlightenment. This has actually nothing to do with the way you handle your business. Whether you are a meat eater, vegetarian, do drugs, kill people. Has nothing to do with that.

It is all about to get in real contact with yourself and not to live ethically or like a monk. I handle it this way basically: I try to cut from time to time a little bit of the real bad stuff out of my life.

So, I stopped smoking a year ago. Started meditating. Moved to the greatest city in my country. Study the major that I love. However, I still keep some shit periodically in my life and I really enjoy it as much as I can.

So, I'll still go partying from time to time. I have a festival planned for this year. I'll still drink alcohol sometimes - have fun and do stupid shit. But I keep it out of my daily loop and more as exceptions. This way (I think) I can live quite long and have good fun. However, I also do this cleaning process of my life very slowly and consistently. So I'll basically get rid of 2-3 things that are not good for me per year. This year I started eating better for example, but I still go crazy on Saturdays if I want to.

But all this has nothing to do with my enlightenment journey. This is more of a personal attitude that I have for my life. Have fun and experience it as deeply as you can. That's what I would say 

[Pierre]

59 minutes ago, Arik said:

But all this has nothing to do with my enlightenment journey. 

Are you sure ? 

I love alcohol, coffee and sweets, but they stir up my thoughts and emotions, and lower my awareness...

[Azrael]

5 minutes ago, Pierre said:

Are you sure ? 

I love alcohol, coffee and sweets, but they stir up my thoughts and emotions, and lower my awareness...

Ok, that's a point I agree. But in my experience it is more how to approach these things. They can definitely hold you back if you handle them as 99% percent of the society that just is completely sucked into them (Leo made a whole video about that). But I think - and that's just my opinion - it's more about how you deal with alcohol, coffee and sweets and not about them as substances.

I can for example use alcohol very effectively to alter my state of mind and see different perspectives (what I tend to do when I drink). However, you can get just shit-faced drunk and if you do that regularly, yes this will probably fuck you up.

Same with sugar and coffee. I can see beauty in the taste (if consumed consciously) but I can see great danger if consumed as I liked it in the past - just getting as much of it in me. 

So - and I can just talk for myself on this point - I think there are different ways to go about it. If it really hinders you - maybe get rid of some of it or consume it with greater pauses.

Great point, though!

[A way to Actualize]

 

 

10 hours ago, Pierre said:

Do you refrain from it ? Do you bask into it in order to fully experience your being ? Are you quite light about it, without too much concern ? Do you try to find it in healthy stuff ?

Here is a enlightened teacher giving a solution for this dilemma. It is about releasing judgements to those things from pleasure to not be addicted to it and be attracted to healthier things. 

Futher explanation is seen in the video.