Beyond thinking

 

Last night I lay on my bed pondering about human sufferings. This could have been triggered by news of 2 young acquaintances facing life challenges, one with divorce and another with a spouse addicted to gambling. I think deeper into why vices have such a strong hold on human beings. I think it boils down to the pleasure derived from heightened senses. Such feelings elate the body physical sensations and that's what most clamour for. 

Dostoevsky described vividly this sensation (through the character of an addicted gambler in his book ):

"Whenever I..found myself in some shameful position, some more than usually humiliating, despicable and, above all, ridiculous situation always aroused in me not only boundless anger but....an incredible sense of pleasure, an intoxication...from the agonising awareness of my own depravity. I confess that I often sought it out because for me it was the most powerful of all such sensations."

I think the same probably holds true for infidelity and other forms of addiction.

On a less dramatic scale don't we all grasp for pleasant feelings which lighten our body and push away uncomfortable feelings which tend to cause our body to constrict. Life thus seems like a never ending quest to line up good 'experiences' or at least to avoid bad ones, moment after moment, day after day. How is it even possible? Even if for a time we feel happy having all that we ever want, do those conditions last? 

Let's analyse what actually happens when an emotionally painful situation arises? It starts with the mind, an attachment to an idea, a perception that this should not have happened , a fear that worse things may come in the future. These thoughts arouse emotional distress that cause pain in the heart or a constriction in the body which is very hard to bear. So humans struggle to avoid such sufferings in life.

The husbands in the above examples have failed and do not live up to expectations, that’s the first arrow shot on the wives. The wives shoot themselves a second arrow when they ruminate about the future or the cultural shame. 

However they must understand reality, the frailty of human nature, the conditioning of each individual from upbringing, past experiences, in-born character or constitution and even karmic inheritance. So too is the reality of sickness and death of a human body. Attachment to form and idea goes against the law of nature and brings about mental distress.  

To alleviate suffering one has to go beyond thinking ie. be aware of one's thoughts and their impact on feelings. Above all one must be cognitive of excessive attachment and also accept that life has ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows.