Hello All:
It is hard to see the adverse long-term outcome of sense pleasures in this gross material world alone (not considering the finer worlds for the moment,as that requires the belief in those worlds as a precondition). Most do not try at all, the general attitude being: ‘here is this moment, let me enjoy, after all we only live once. And if things turn out wrong, then I will have another throw of the dice, either in the same or in another direction. As long as there is life, there is hope’.
Johnny said: ‘if they did not cause you any adverse effects, would you continue to enjoy them without considering the implications?’ Most people do. Those who see the dangers must have either great intelligence or have experienced the resulting suffering in previous lives, and this last, as I see, could really be the very root of that ‘intelligence’. This may not penetrate to the conscious level in most cases.
This would be even more the case if one gets to consider the conditions in higher kama loka realms. Johnny said: ‘Which implies if we are going to exist in kama loka again to enjoy sense pleasures, we would need to take rebirth, grow old, fall sick, and die.’ But as one is free from sickness and old age in the realms of kama loka above the human, the temptation to enjoy there is even greater: a fine material body, heightened sense pleasures, no pains, no aches, no deseases, no old age….and for over 9 billion years (realm 11)..Wow!! ” Truly I think those who have reached the Sakadagami stage (here; there it will be difficult) can get a glimse of the real dangers there; an anagami anugami would see it. This is what I can make out.
Our difficulty lies in that we can conceive of no blissful state apart from that arising from sense pleasures. I remember when I was about nine or ten years old observing that there was joy in my uncle’s house following the birth of a baby; some time back another uncle had died in Australia. I saw all around that in this world there is both the pleasant and the unpleasant, joy and grief; one follows the other and the other way around. Not only that, the same people who are happy now will be unhappy tomorrow and vice-versa. So, dissatisfied with this state of affairs, with having entered into such a world, knowing that I will be subject to it myself later in life, I said to myself: what if a Being, with the power to deliver, were to give me this choice: ‘Alright, you either suffer the same fate yourself (as is normal with everyone else) or you will never experience anything unpleasant in your life , but for that the price you have to pay will be never experiencing anything pleasant either’ Meaning, either both or neither. Life as you see it or death.I could not answer, because though I did not want all this unpleasantness, I did want the pleasant, and how! No almighty Being is necessary to tell you that there is no one-sided coin anywhere in this world. But that is what we keep hoping for and keep striving hopelessly for.
Then we at last see that there is IN FACT a one-sided coin somewhere, there is indeed the Perfect State – but not in this world. If it were otherwise then all living would be just a long futile endeavour and a cruel one too. I can do no better than quote:
If you lay bound upon the wheel of change
and no way were of breaking from the chain
The Heart of Boundless Being is a curse
The Soul of Things fell Pain. You are not bound!
So we strive on -BUT NOW IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.
y not