Porn Free for 90 Days

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
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manas
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by manas »

dhammapal wrote:Hi Manas,

Are you familiar with the Nanda Sutta?. The Buddha had a great sense of humor and skillful means.

With metta / dhammapal.
I would not dare to say that the Blessed one would ever play a trick on anyone, but I love the way he skilfully gets Nanda so fired up and inspired to practice with the promise of 'five-hundred pink-footed nymphs', but with the eventual result that he no longer even wants them :lol: But being outwitted by the Buddha was for his own good!

:anjali:
To the Buddha-refuge i go; to the Dhamma-refuge i go; to the Sangha-refuge i go.
dhammapal
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by dhammapal »

manas wrote:
dhammapal wrote:Hi Manas,
Are you familiar with the Nanda Sutta?. The Buddha had a great sense of humor and skillful means.
With metta / dhammapal.
I would not dare to say that the Blessed one would ever play a trick on anyone, but I love the way he skilfully gets Nanda so fired up and inspired to practice with the promise of 'five-hundred pink-footed nymphs', but with the eventual result that he no longer even wants them :lol: But being outwitted by the Buddha was for his own good!
:anjali:
I love the way the Buddha instantly responded with his skillful means of taking Nanda by the arm to the heaven realm. He probably forsaw that Nanda would be fired up by the other monks teasing him about practicing for the sake of nymphs. This reminds me of a teaching that has a lesson for porn-addicts, reflecting that there are people in the world with psychic powers who would be able to know about our shameful behavior in seclusion.

Porn-free for 129 days.

With metta / dhammapal.
Dharmastarter
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by Dharmastarter »

Porn free for 2 days ^^
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DAWN
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by DAWN »

Free porn for 150 days ++

I have a question, how do the bhikkhus do, when during the night time they have some pollution and his body is liberation of that is not usefull. They wash that the same morning, our they come on pindabat without washing these robes, our something else? Because if they wash those robes the same morning, it's not be dry before evening... so i'am wondering about that.
Sabbe dhamma anatta
We are not concurents...
I'am sorry for my english
dhammapal
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by dhammapal »

Porn-free for 134 days.

I had a near-miss last night, searching the web for a sex education fantasy. Fortunately I didn't find any photos only a diagram. I've realized that not only are nude photos a trigger for masturbation but that masturbation is a trigger for searching for porn.

I'm going to work with sexual fantasies by taking them to their logical long-term conclusions where I'll probably find I would wish to have not wasted my money and have time to myself which of course I have now. I got the idea from a story in Ajaan Lee's autobiography where he contemplates disrobing and decides to think about how it would actually be like. A great story.

With metta / dhammapal.
dhammapal
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by dhammapal »

After 134 days I just looked at some porn :( Now I'm worried that I might have downloaded a computer virus! So back to Day 1 I guess.

With metta and apologies / dhammapal.
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LonesomeYogurt
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by LonesomeYogurt »

dhammapal wrote:After 134 days I just looked at some porn :( Now I'm worried that I might have downloaded a computer virus! So back to Day 1 I guess.

With metta and apologies / dhammapal.
No need for apologies to anyone. Shame, guilt, or frustration are not positive emotions.

Delight in your progress, reflect on your setback, and motivate yourself to continue in your wholesome efforts. We wish you the best!
Gain and loss, status and disgrace,
censure and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions among human beings are inconstant,
impermanent, subject to change.

Knowing this, the wise person, mindful,
ponders these changing conditions.
Desirable things don’t charm the mind,
undesirable ones bring no resistance.

His welcoming and rebelling are scattered,
gone to their end,
do not exist.
- Lokavipatti Sutta

Stuff I write about things.
dhammapal
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by dhammapal »

Porn-free for 19 hours (and 134 days before that and 168 days before that). Saw a woman in the grocery store and just thought "I could always look it up on the InterNet" <joke> as something I wouldn't make a regular habit of. I caught myself in the act of doing walking meditation when my parents were out and realized that if I was really a porn-addict I would be looking at it at that time.

With metta / dhammapal.
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Ben
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by Ben »

You seem to be doing well with your efforts in sense restraint.
I hope that as you continue to rededicate yourself to celibacy that you are careful that you are not being motivated by aversion.
with metta,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
dhammapal
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by dhammapal »

Ben wrote:You seem to be doing well with your efforts in sense restraint.
I hope that as you continue to rededicate yourself to celibacy that you are careful that you are not being motivated by aversion.
with metta,

Ben
Surprisingly after the initial disappointment at letting people down I had almost no aversion at all regarding the female sex. There is the Buddhist meditation on the foulness of the body but all the teachings are to be subject to honest questioning. The Buddha said a woman can have beauty and charm (see Majjhima 13 the allure of forms in drawbacks of sensuality) and I don't have "sour grapes".

I am renewing my intention to accumulate merit of days free from porn because sexual craving when searching for porn is in conflict with my desire for inner peace, concentration and wisdom and I would expect a very stressful rebirth if I passed away at the moment of watching (see SN35.235).

With metta / dhammapal.
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Ben
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by Ben »

Hi Dhammapal,

I am confused - how have you let people down??
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
dhammapal
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Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 9:23 am
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by dhammapal »

Ben wrote:Hi Dhammapal,

I am confused - how have you let people down??
kind regards,

Ben
Hi Ben,

I see, so the thread is not anti-porn but mainly taking an interest in Buddhist practice re sense-restraint on the InterNet? (I had thought it was like a support group and my "relapse" would erode people's willpower. I need to have more respect for people's ability to make their own independent resolutions)

With metta / dhammapal.
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Ben
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Re: Porn Free for 90 Days

Post by Ben »

Hi Dhammapal,

It is for support. For people who are dealing with their addictions to masturbation and porn. To diarise their efforts, give and receive support from others.
You are not letting anyone else down if you stumble from time to time. The important thing is not to entertain guilt or other negative thoughts if you are not completely chaste all of the time.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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