Seeking Pleasure Is Seeking Stimulation

**Note: Truth does not always sound pleasant. If the mind is not really peaceful now, it might not be a perfect moment to listen to this podcast, one has to be aware of the emotions or reactions that can block one from listening attentively and with humility.

This talk is a meditation practice. What one needs to do is listen attentively, without getting stuck in words, examine the mind in silence, not agree or disagree, just look at the mind as it is. Doing so is already a meditation practice.

Transcript

For most people who are living in thoughts,

Pleasure becomes meaning of life.

Without pleasure,

The mind feels bored,

The ultimate boredom.

So the mind wants more stimulation,

Wants more pleasure.

To meditate is to observe these pleasure-seeking activities in ourselves,

See the problem of this seeking or the danger of it.

When the mind is seeking pleasure,

The fear follows.

The fear of losing the pleasure,

The fear of not getting the pleasure,

The fear in all kinds of forms.

So we have to look at this carefully,

Objectively.

Look at this tendency of the mind to seek stimulation.

The pleasure is something stimulated because it only comes from thoughts.

Thought is something evoked,

Stimulated.

So in that pursuit of this stimulation,

The mind is always seeking,

Seeking,

Seeking,

In order to get more and more pleasure from the stimulation,

From thoughts.

Such a mind is very superficial because it never tastes what is peace,

What is joy.

In that very seeking,

The peace is gone,

Let alone joy.

Because peace and seeking are two incompatible states of the mind.

That's to say,

Only when the mind stops seeking,

The mind simply stays with what is.

This moment,

Then the mind could find peace.