Jhana meditation and attachment to pleasure
Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 11:20 pm
Eradicating one's craving for sensual pleasures is obviously a key aspect of buddhism. These sensual pleasures feel good, and as such, we become attached to them through repetition and crave them over time. This craving results in always wanting more, and thus suffering.
This makes perfect sense...but what about the pleasure involved in the act of meditation? The 1st jhana, for example, is described as a profound state of bliss and ecstasy:
What exactly is the difference between this meditative pleasure and say, the pleasure between two lovers during sex?
I ask this, because, i feel in a way, that I have almost developed an attachment to the pleasurable and detached state of meditation. If i enter a state of meditation for 30 minutes before i go to work, for example, I realize how much less pleasurable the act of "work" is in comparison to the relaxed, detached, and empty mind of meditation. Now theoretically, my meditation should ALLOW me to get in better touch with my feelings TOWARDS work, but this doesn't always occur. It's almost like i enjoy meditation so much that i just want MORE of it, just like any pleasure.
So once again, what exactly IS the difference between the pleasure of meditation and any other sort of sensual pleasure? Or is there none?
This makes perfect sense...but what about the pleasure involved in the act of meditation? The 1st jhana, for example, is described as a profound state of bliss and ecstasy:
"There is the case where a monk — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities — enters and remains in the first jhana: rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought and evaluation. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dham ... jhana.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
What exactly is the difference between this meditative pleasure and say, the pleasure between two lovers during sex?
I ask this, because, i feel in a way, that I have almost developed an attachment to the pleasurable and detached state of meditation. If i enter a state of meditation for 30 minutes before i go to work, for example, I realize how much less pleasurable the act of "work" is in comparison to the relaxed, detached, and empty mind of meditation. Now theoretically, my meditation should ALLOW me to get in better touch with my feelings TOWARDS work, but this doesn't always occur. It's almost like i enjoy meditation so much that i just want MORE of it, just like any pleasure.
So once again, what exactly IS the difference between the pleasure of meditation and any other sort of sensual pleasure? Or is there none?