Thank you for your kind words! I believe that understanding what we actually crave when we crave sensual pleasure makes a massive difference. Here’s another simile to illustrate the point:
Imagine someone confined in a room that is slightly too cold. Occasionally a small flame is held near them. There is genuine relief — real, experienced warmth. They begin to crave the flame.
But notice: without the cold room as the permanent condition, the flame would be neutral or unpleasant. The flame’s pleasantness is entirely a product of the cold that precedes it, surrounds it, and returns the moment the flame is removed. The pleasure has no independent existence — it is entirely a function of the suffering that frames it.
Now: what are they actually craving? They are craving the cold room briefly answered. They have built thanha around an experience that cannot exist without the suffering as its precondition.
Remove the cold room permanently — which would be actual liberation — and the craving for the flame evaporates completely, because the flame’s apparent pleasantness was never its own property. It was borrowed from the suffering it temporarily reduced.
Ultimately, we are craving our own suffering. This is why suffering is another name for kama, and why more craving can only lead to more suffering.
