The senses that we're involved with all day,
Then you crave to have pleasure of those senses.
And then craving to be free of the unpleasant,
What you don't like.
So involved in both is the sense of craving.
The mind moving either to get it or to remove it,
To not have it.
Craving to hear sweet,
Ego pleasing words or sounds.
So this can be sounds in words,
Music.
We like certain music,
We don't like other music.
So the opposite is craving to not hear ugly,
Displeasing words or sounds.
So there's music that we like,
Music we don't like.
Sounds we like in the sweet words and then words we don't like.
And then craving to acquire material things,
Thinking about how to get it.
And then the opposite is craving to avoid losing or not obtaining material things.
So again,
This creates a suffering mind.
Craving for personal praise and admiration.
So this is to do with having a good reputation,
Being well known,
People saying good things about you.
And then the opposite is not wanting to have slander,
Blame,
Criticism.
So they're in pairs.
And how the mind goes between one extreme and the other extreme.
Are you involved in any of these pairs?
All of them,
Some of them,
None of them?
How much time and energy does it take?
And couldn't that time and energy be used to benefit others,
To help others?
And imagine yourself floating comfortably on top of a white fluffy cloud.
In your mind you're going back home and you're floating over your town and looking down.
Maybe looking at the people,
The beings below and how they live their lives.
So you're not going to be judgmental,
But just from your own experience and your own understanding of the situation,
Look at how busy people are with their worldly concerns.
Getting caught up in emotional afflictions,
Often worried,
Anxious,
Stressed out.
Usually they're unaware of what's happening.
They think this is life.
How much of their time is spent on worldly concerns?
And take a good look at your own life.
How has your life been up until today?
What is it that your mind keeps returning to?
Even when you're meditating,
Is it one of the eight worldly concerns?
So you have to check up in your own mind,
Not just looking at others and how they're living,
But isn't most of our time taken up with happiness of this life?
How much of our thinking is dominated by desire and attachment?
We desire,
We want to hear sweet words.
And then when we hear them,
We want more.
We become attached.
Whatever it is that we're attached to,
That we think gives us pleasure,
Also has the potential to give us unhappiness.
So the pleasure turns into the pain.
So you're attached,
You have desire,
Attachment to hear certain words.
Then you have desire and attachment not to hear certain words.
So think,
This is how my mind keeps going from one extreme to another.
I am creating my own unhappiness by not having control.
And slowly coming back to the room we're sitting in,
The cushion you're sitting on,
And the meditation we've just been doing.
