How does buddhism view pleasure?

[JustBe]

How does buddhism view pleasure?

If we have a deep sense of meaning, within and towards our life, what is it that derives pleasure?

In my experience without drivers in place seeking out ‘stuff’ distractions, to fill something lacking within, the self in this way, is simply enjoying its own aliveness..

Interacting with life and experiences certainly changes or has changed in me with this way of being.

Pleasure is derived through a more natural, simplistic way of life. I derive pleasure from less, but in many ways a more powerfully richer experience pervades my reality.

There is a depth of experience that naturally derives it’s own pleasure one with experience. That enrichment through my being, is enough..

[Unseeking Seeker]

In my view, as long as there is a seeking, who else is the seeker, other than identity, in as an entity, with form or without form, which is a module separate from other modules in existence? However, we operate from within the perimeter of mind-body and so we may have two orientations:

Orientation-1: We observe pleasure or pain arising and subsiding within body and then affirm that we are merely witnessing it. In other words, we negate to become detached. This seems unnatural and a kind of repression actually, although it is not without merit, in that we recognise we are not only the mind-body but rather, say presence or soul in occupation of it for experiencing transient earth life.

Orientation-2: Here, the precondition is that we are in a state of no-thought all the time, unless thought is required to be used spontaneously as an instrument, just like any limb. If we be as such, in a mode of embrace and release, moment to moment, all moments entwined in a seamless continuum, then in effect identity has ‘vaporised’ or at least receded substantially.

So, the former has identity as doer negating and the latter as consciousness or innate aliveness pulsating without resistance.

About pleasure, taking it as heart expansion and pain as a contraction, it is natural that we seek pleasure and shun pain. However, both will occur anyway. The response of the person practicing mindfulness would be to recognise the impermanence and so remain unaffected, whereas the response of the identity-less person would also be the same but the difference being of engaging and disengaging spontaneously without employing thought.

To derive pleasure from the small everyday moments of life means we are childlike, unclinging and as such flowing freely in as much as able, since impressions would automatically yet be coloured by past experiences and memory imagery.

When joy becomes a permanent embodiment of our being, just like our breath, as in being in love with love or let’s say celebrating our aliveness, it manifests as bliss that never ebbs, a rapture beyond measure and then that too, wondrous as it is, transmutes as time dissolved ineffable peace of our Self. These all are coordinates of our ‘becoming by merging’, when separation of polarities is extinguished.

[saurab]

The real inquiry should be not how Buddhism views pleasure, but how pleasure should be viewed, and that the original poster has clarified beautifully, namely: deriving pleasure from fewer things that enrich life, like helping others or sharing something with others, or maybe even just enjoying a good meal.

[Catsquotl]

I would think that when you see pleasure arising a Buddhist view or right view would be one of momentary wonder, an understanding of what it was that gave rise to the pleasure.
And then a letting go.

If one would find him or herself clinging to the pleasure I think the Buddhist view would be to remember how the very nature of whatever it was that made you feel this way is impermanent, empty and that clinging to it will surely give rise to dis-satisfaction.

With Love

[sky]

Buddha advised people to find the most pleasant experience possible

" If by leaving a small pleasure one sees a great pleasure, let a wise person leave the small pleasure and look to the great " (Dhammapada 290).....

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by sky

Buddha advised people to find the most pleasant experience possible
" If by leaving a small pleasure one sees a great pleasure,
let a wise person leave the small pleasure and look to the great " (Dhammapada 290).....

And there you have it!!

[Catsquotl]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

And there you have it!!

And so it is..

[Catsquotl]

I've been thinking about this, and the verse quoted saying it's advised to go for the biggest pleasure.
In my understanding the Buddha did to great extend explain what was pleasurable to pursue and what wasn't.

If one were to take Dhammapada verse 290

If, by giving up a lesser happiness,
One could experience greater happiness,
A wise person would renounce the lesser
To behold the greater. (translated by Gil Fronsdal)

Out of context and at face value I fear a great many "wrong" conclusions could be construed.

2 cnts

[sky]

Originally Posted by Catsquotl

In my understanding the Buddha did to great extend explain what was pleasurable to pursue and what wasn't

Yes He actually does explain in His Suttas.....

[Maisy]

A good example for me is say somebody gets married and their idea is now I will get all of this pleasure and get what I want. So they go into the marriage totally self centered and only thinking of their needs and pleasures. Of course this typically ends in a divorce after a lot of fighting about things.

Then in a moment of reflection they think, hmmm that was not a lot of pleasure. It was a lot of fighting and arguing what went wrong? Then they have an epiphany and insight and think, "Oh I should think of their needs and wants as well as my own. That's how I can get the most pleasure!" Maybe this works as they now are not only thinking of their own pleasure. So through some refinement of themselves they now have a higher pleasure.

To me this is like Buddhism's view on pleasure. Through discernment and introspection we find the way to the highest pleasure. Being self centered can bring pleasure but it will also bring suffering. Buddhism is seeking a pleasure that ends all suffering. For example getting all you want is thought to bring pleasure and it does perhaps in the short term but then things get stolen, break, get taken away. One lives in fear of losing such things. It takes a struggle to get things. Maybe we do immoral things to get everything we want. So Buddhism would say a higher pleasure is to want nothing. Then nothing can be taken from us. Not only that, we will be happy with what we have even if it is nothing. It is a higher pleasure and like the marriage story, we become different people. Things like emptiness and non-attachment, loving kindness, non-self, are valued in Buddhism as they bring the highest pleasure.