June 7, 2024 at 8:29 am
#50100
Keymaster
Yes. It is not easy to stay away from “sensory pleasures.” Some spend hours recalling and enjoying “fond memories” of past sensory experiences.
- Even after it is fully grasped that most “sensory pleasures” are mind-made (due to “distorted sanna“), the tendency is to indulge in sensory pleasures because that is what we all have been doing for an eternity. It is not easy to break that habit.
- That is why people pay to watch good magic shows. They know that those effects are not real, but they are mind-pleasing. The same applies to watching movies.
- That is why the Buddha advised bhikkhus to engage in “mindful meditation” or Satipatthana constantly. Most of those bhikkhus fully understood how the “distorted sanna” arises, but it needed to be contemplated constantly to “wear away” the “bad gati” accumulated over innumerable past lives.
I don’t understand the last part of your comment: “However, i was thinking if there could be a better answer. WITHOUT bringing in concepts of kamma, rebirth and how attachment leads to rebirth, is there a better way to answer this question? I did not want to bring in “supernatural” concepts because it becomes harder to believe. How would y’all have handled it?”
- The fact that a mind attaches not to “real pleasures” but to “mind-made pleasures” (via “distorted sanna“) can not be understood without understanding those concepts.
- One must at least understand the bad consequences of attaching to sensory pleasures if the better explanation of “distorted sanna” is not yet comprehended. That also requires understanding the concepts of kamma, rebirth, and how attachment leads to rebirth, i.e., the ‘big picture.”