Quote:
Originally Posted by zeek
My therapist advised me to seek experiences that engender good feelings and now I find out that not only are good feelings "illusory" {OBW} but also addictive {awareness}.  But let me ask you, isn't being addicted to a good thing a good end? |
being addicted to anything "good" or "bad" is bondage. the dopamine/oxycontin flood is a symptom of the illusions the mind creates for us and we get addicted to it very easily. It's a good question, "is it a bad thing?" and one I wrestle with a lot. Is being "addicted" to sunsets and warm soup a bad thing? well, they're better than crack but once you start thinking "i must have that sunset to be happy" then you are on the road to not appreciating and being grateful for being alive.
I practiced this is a monastery once, in Kathmandu, every morning was a beautiful sunrise at 5am or so and we would all go to take tea and watch it - in silence of course. And then one morning I decided this was merely an illusion. I sat in a corner facing a wall, still on the rotating planet, still feeling the sun come up, but without that "sunrise kodak moment". Just being. That felt like freedom and space. That was more of a divine revelation, to me, than the blah blah worshipful beauty of the dawn sky.
You could argue the "fall" was the first illusion - we're naked, we need clothes, and everything else since then has been just all in our minds.