No Joy, No Misery

[@AnomalyFour]

these videos have actually changed my entire life. nothing else has ever even made a dent. thank you

[@googleuser9624]

Isn't it wonderful.

[@Saganism]

Same here. A thousand namaskars to the Arahants.

[@mr1001nights]

“That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.” -Charles Bukowski

[@flowersarelovesome]

Aristotle identified our being in the world as being-at-work in his Ethics and couldn't conceive of happiness as anything other than a certain kind of activity(he declared the contemplative life to be the highest man could achieve). In a way, you could say that he was right and that if you stop all the activity(everything from drinking to philosophizing) you engage in as a way to avoid confronting yourself, the threat of ceasing to be creeps in and causes massive anxiety. This is how I understand why humans are so desperate to always "make something happen" by either turning away from pain or toward pleasure.

[@pathfinder_strider]

Sometimes I wonder what kind of good kamma we have done in order to have the merits to hear these teachings.

[@janetkocsis6419]

Excellent teaching Venerables. Every time I think I have a question, I end up coming to the conclusion that I need to just keep practicing restraint and enduring. There is a reason I don’t yet understand. I believe this is the case with recognizing and understanding neutral feeling. I don’t believe I can recognize neutral feeling yet do mostly because I still try to distract myself from it. So in my case what is needed is to increase my effort and to keep watching and enduring. There is no way I would have come to understand even this without your teachings of the Dhamma, and changes are happening. Thank you.

[@nigelsheppard625]

Thank you, this is incredibly clear. 🙏🙏🙏

[@FredericMoreauful]

Non-dependence on pleasure through the senses is pleasurable :D I look forward to the pains of restraint!

[@FredericMoreauful]

Oh that’s why pain is just pain because it’s not simultaneously a lack of pleasure that you still value.

[@lazydaisy649]

As a person prone to mood swings, being neutral is always my aim. Thank you for pointing out I am on the right track.

[@FRED-gx2qk]

GOOD MEN Good path

[@pragzter]

Thank you! This particular point always baffled me with spiritual development. I think I was trying to jump too many steps ahead without proper practice of self restraint.

[@mr1001nights]

Yes, this is an excellent clarification.

[@srimathisamarakone8535]

Dealing pain on its terms- Very useful video. Thank you Bhantha

[@wijayangawijesinghe3027]

💎❤🧘🙏

[@bkhpanigha]

I'd like to ask two questions related to the discussion here: -What is truly the range of the term kāma? It's translation as 'sensuality' has personally always had a too carnal connotation (things like food, music), and thus I've sometimes reflected inadequately on it. The Suttas speak even of things like fields, money, property as kāma. Is it simply Anything, coarse or subtle, which one delights in? On sense restraint: it doesn't stop at preventing contact with certain sense objects, does it? Often the Buddha's instruction is to 'not grasp at signs and features.' How does one practically do that, and how does it prevent desire and aversion in things already arisen?

[@HillsideHermitage]

1. Delighting in anything, coarse or subtle, that either provides senses with the direct pleasure or ensures later access/availability to it. 2. Signs and features are on the level of one's thoughts. One avoids grasping at them by neither trying to deny the presence of the thoughts, nor delight in them. Simply put: by enduring thoughts without acting out of them. If desire or aversion is already there, it prevents it from increasing. Later on it will prevent it from manifesting. When the true nature of those signs and features is sufficiently understood.

[@bkhpanigha]

@@HillsideHermitage I see. Isn't sense restraint in a way the opposite of engaging in papañca? Given that the latter, as I understand it, occurs when one fails to endure thoughts (or phenomena), which then increases the pressure that these can exert on oneself.

[@arunachalpradeshvlog5757]

Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu 🙏🙏🙏👏🏵🌹🥀🌺🌻🌼🌷⚘🌾💐🌷💐

[@arunachalpradeshvlog5757]

I am from India Arunachal Pradesh 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳💐⚘🌷💐🌻🌼🌺💐

[@fernandoorozco5968]

thank you and I love to learn about this in the video

[@hariharry391]

🙏

[@tesstess7005]

🌼

[@googleuser9624]

wonderful

[@TheMinotaurWarrior]

Bhante, Thank you for this wonderful talk. I wonder if you could give a discussion on Sukha, clarifying what it is and what it is not.

[@eastxeast]

So even neutral feelings are anatta.

[@thisjourney2712]

My understanding thus far, and open to critique. Joy is a natural symptom of abandoning the sense bases. There is a difference between the joy of seclusion and joy sense pleasure; the joy of seclusion is blameless, the joy of sense-pleasure blameworthy. When you say "seek joylessness" it doesn't make sense to me, since I understand joy as a symptom of abandoning the world. If this joy of seclusion arises should one seek to get rid of this quality of the mind? If I'm uninvolved with this joy of seclusion, it doesn't strike me as a problem, or something to be avoided. But it isn't the state of "No Joy" like the title is getting at. I'm not sure that we're in contention, but wanted to present these points in case there is potential for more clarity, thank you.

[@HillsideHermitage]

We are both correct because we talking about two different things. Joy of seclusion is used to abandon the joy of the sense pleasures. But for nibbana, even the joy of seclusion must be surmounted. That's what the Buddha meant when he said a monk abandons perceptions/values of the village life, by developing perceptions of the forest. But then he further realizes that although no disturbances can affect him on account of the village perceptions, he could still be disturbed if something disrupts his forest perceptions. Thus, he should strive harder and elevate his mind until it's established upon the perceptions of the Earth. And so on. (MN 121) Or when it was said in the Suttas that First jhana can serve as a basis for complete destruction of the fetters. When asked how, the Buddha explained that when a monk is the first jhana (i.e. an utterly blameless state, wholesome pleasure, seclusion, joy, without anything unwholesome present there), he should then regard ANY PHENOMENA in the First Jhana as pain, debt, dart, misery, etc. So that his mind will completely turn away from it and go to nibbana. (AN 9.36)

[@thisjourney2712]

@@HillsideHermitage Thank you for your considerate response! This is helpful.

[@cfsVchris]

Sadhu⁰

[@harryk812]

Hello sir, could one do busy work without trying to distract themselves?

[@AD-bf4tb]

Do people with limited mental capacities have any hope in this life or is it just their responsibility to be born with such disabilities and they just have to wait for a "better" rebirth? Is there any possible way to help them according to the Dhamma? I know that in mahayana there are many ways of how to help - such as chanting etc. but I would be interested to know if Buddha has ever talked about such people?

[@HillsideHermitage]

It depends on how limited those capacities are. As far as the Suttas go, it is pretty clear that if a person does not possess sufficient mental capacity, they cannot understand the Dhamma in this life. Thus, their focus should be on actively making merit and virtuous behaviour.

[@Finalrpg123]

Do all sotapanna have direct knowledge and understanding of Mara, brahmas, the different realms and most importantly, rebirth AFTER death, not moment to moment rebirth in this very life. If all sotapanna don’t have this direct understanding, knowledge and sight of the above, do Anagami. If Anagami do not have that understanding knowledge and sight, do arahant? If arahant do not. Does this mean the only guarantee of arahantship is that of arriving at Nibbana and the end of rebirth in the here and now? Is an arahant only guaranteed to have the cessation of craving and therefore suffering? Or do they know and/or see those ‘religious’ elements of Buddhism Thank you Bhante

[@HillsideHermitage]

Every arahant fully understands the complete NATURE of samsara, craving, death, bhava and avijja. Thus, consequently, fully understands the escape from those. Not every arahant will have a specific memory of previous births or future reappearances and similar, but every arahant will have the full knowledge of the BASIS for reappearances of beings of any kind. That's how an arahant would understand that without such basis there will be no more birth and no more wandering on. Important thing to remember is that puthujjana's notion of death, samsara, rebirth is ALREADY affected with his wrong views. Thus, it will not be possible for someone WITHOUT the Right view, to even theoretically grasp the approximate nature of these phenomena. In other words, when a puthujjana thinks about death or rebirth, that is not what death or rebirth actually is. So, any further effort to "objectively" assess what is "after" death will not be objective at all. For that, a complete removal of avijja is necessary.

[@Finalrpg123]

@@HillsideHermitage would it be fair to say, that it is not until arahantship that a being would know for certain that there is reappearance, after break up of the physical body? Or are arahants just certain that the conditions that which reappearance after break up of this physical body are based on are eradicated, if reappearance after death is true. Thank you for your answer

[@TheDeepening718]

If the love you feel comes from the Truth, aka Adi Parashakti, Then that love itself is truth and therefore does not fall under the catagory of Dukkha. (Dukkha means insubstantial or un-truth).

[@traverstravers8979]

I don't agree that people with ignorant worldview ONLY gravitate to pleasure. If that were true, no one would ever evolve. All living beings, even plants, have a natural wisdom that includes healing pain.

[@traverstravers8979]

This is arrogance on your part. Even the most ignorant beings seek more than neutral or pleasurable feelings and avoidance of pain.