Why are some things pleasurable whilst others things cause suffering?

[lmfao]

I've recently wondered whether theres a "reason" for why certain things are deemed pleasurable and why certain things are deemed painful. From meditation I've come to feel that things like negative emotions, muscle pain, thirst, are in of in themselves just sensations in the same way that warmth, tasty food and sex generate another set of sensations. There isnt anything inherently wrong about the raw sensation of fear, its just different from sexual gratification in the same way blue is just different from red; none of the colours are inherently superior. But despite this, my mind has a natural aversion to certain sensations which are deemed negative and ive come to notice only during meditation that this aversion happens at a level that is subconscious but I never notice this in my day to day life. I think long meditation sessions are the best way to see this. 

Maybe there is no reason for why we have an aversion to certain colours, and it is just the way it is. I'll read whatever thoughts you have on this.

A really good short video on this topic:

There's also Leo's video on strong negative emotions:

 

[ground]

As to like and dislike or pleasure and suffering there are different levels of being conditioned: 1. Conditioning on the level of human conscious being (being conditioned as a human being) and 2. Conditioning on the individual level of human conscious being (being conditioned as Peter or Mary or John or Jenny)

[Shin]

If a bodily sensation brings us suffering it is because we think we are the body.
If something else brings us suffering, it is because we identify with thoughts and think we reside between the eyes.

It really doesn't matter what we like or dislike in the end, it is the same process.
If we actually stop to see ourselves as a body and a mind, there will never be any suffering again.

If someone needs a proof, learn to lucid dream and see how much you care about being killed or humiliated in this dream.
The body and the mind would not even feel as yours, there would be no distinction between what's yours and what's not, there wouldn't even be the concept of it.

 

 

[Leo Gura]

Everything in you is a survival mechanism.

Survival is the whole game you're playing.

[Shin]

There is not even a need to lucid dreaming.

Some of your dreams are like that, you don't really care about «you» in them.

[Jack River]

Pleasure and suffering have there root in desire which is the survival mechanism of thought being utilized to solve psychological dissatisfaction with what-is. 

Pleasure/desire is resistance to what is. 

Cant have pleasure without suffering. They go together. They are the same. 

[Preetom]

@lmfao

I experimented and came to the same conclusion as yours before!

I can eat a chocolate cake for which I craved. But if I eat it very slowly and mindfully, watching what is exactly going on, my experience comes to a point where the perceptions related to eating the cake become so flat and normal; nothing fancy. But the craving feels like that cake is the solution for life at that moment!

Same thing goes for pain. If I really look at a pain for a while, it becomes a neutral sensation; as if it got defanged!

My hypothesis is, our cravings and aversions are direct product of unclear, fuzzy seeing; which is in turn generally product of our subconscious conditioning. Reality becomes utterly 'dead' and 'flat' if you look at it clearly without any agenda.

But our unclear seeing aka our overvaluation of craving and aversion is what keeps us busy chasing the cheese..