The capacity to be at ease in any situation is one of the best skills to acquire. Aversion to unpleasant experiences drives one to seek out pleasant experiences. Obsessive craving for pleasant experiences may even lead one to reject neutral and mundane experiences, calling it boredom.
This idea which I gathered from a talk is very interesting.
Most addiction to sensual pleasure is a way to drown unpleasant experiences. This is common knowledge. However constant seeking of pleasant experiences may become an obsession such that even when the situation is normal, routine and ordinary, one finds it a boredom and often unbearable.
During this period we are inundated with bad news arising from the Covid pandemic, siege of Ukraine and consequences of climate change. It is not unusual to walk away feeling sad or anxious about the future. Our mind then seek out ways to get pleasant feelings. This may explain why people are breaching Covid restrictions to have fun and merry making. This also explains the urge to jump onto the first flight to fight boredom.
One must learn to accept all conditions happening to and around oneself. One should be aware of one's feelings; and move from personalising these feelings ie. the need to get rid of 'MY SADNESS or ANXIETY' to seeing it as part of the natural world and the conditions in the world as part of reality.
Ajahn Sumedho- "The world is this way and things happen....This is the way of life, this is human existence. So in our minds we embrace the whole of it..."
According to Buddha life is ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows.
Thich Nhat Hanh used the metaphor of a rose to describe life. A rose brings you joy but you have to understand the thorns so that you can pick the rose....."Don't say that because there are thorns you cannot be happy. Don't say that because there is still anger or sadness in your heart, you cannot enjoy anything at all"
Practicing this approach to adapt to all situations in life will help liberate our fears and liberate our bondage to our sense realm.
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