Related to the other topics such as "Is happiness an ingredient in chocolate?" and "The Restless Mind" posts, in this video Bhante shares his experience of failing to find satisfaction and happiness from the materialistic things in the outside world. Come along on this journey of finding the true happiness and feel free to post any questions you may have 🤗 .

In the last few days my mind has been constantly badgered by the thought of wanting to eat a kebab, and I got to say its been unpleasant resisting it. 

In my life so far, until I came across the Dhamma, I had been following my desires with the concept that achieving the desired sense object was where satisfaction and happiness was. 

This desire to have a kebab gave me an opportunity to reflect on the dhamma, and here are a few thoughts.

There is no object outside of the mind which has an agenda in this world, for example, the kebab has no intention of wanting to be eaten or appearing desirable. The mind is where this is all created. It is the minds projection onto the kebab which makes the kebab appear irresistible and desirable. The body also has no role in wanting to have the kebab...since its just a body, an amalgamation of biological processes and chemical reactions. It will take whatever is eaten, process it and repackage it, that's all. But the wanting is created at the level of the mind. The mind wants the kebab but its the body which receives it. How unfortunate is that!

Secondly there is a view that fulfilling these desires through engaging in sensuality is how you can enjoy the world, and so that is what we do everyday. A moment isn't given to question the nature of a desire when it arises, instead we follow it till we achieve the desired sense object. The only problem is that we have been constantly deceiving ourselves thinking that the satisfaction was in the desired sense object.

But take a moment to think about this... when a desire arises, what would happen if you didn't follow through in achieving the desired sense object?

You would start to feel the mental pressure build within and it becomes very unpleasant. This very unpleasant state puts you into a negative net mental state and so when you finally achieve that desired sense object, the relief of the pressure is masked as satisfying or happiness. The longer the mental pressure brews, the greater the relief. Thus desire is unpleasant in its very nature which is really the reason why we are constantly seeking the desired goal (for the relief, but we think that is happiness). Resisting a desire makes this unpleasant nature more apparent, you start to lose concentration and focus.

But fulfilling these sensual desires are also not the answer because what would happen if one day you were to lose one of the senses e.g. you got into an accident which caused the damage to some of your facial structures and you ended up losing the sense of taste! Now this would be a dire situation because you will now have to deal with the unpleasant desire of wanting to experience tasty food but you no longer have the sense of taste to experience it, that is, you can no longer can relieve yourself of the mental pressure.

The more we go down the route of escaping the pressure by relieving through sense objects, the more we convince and strengthen the view that the sense objects is the solution. It is not a solution but merely a Band-Aid masquerading as a one stop solution. 

Keen to hear some your thoughts on this!

How many times have you reached for that piece of chocolate, not because of habit, but because you truly feel it is the chocolate that gives you pleasure or happiness? Bhante challenges the strongly held view that happiness is in the external object i.e. the piece of chocolate. Chocolate is made of ingredients such as milk, sugar, cocoa... but where is the ingredient of happiness? It can come as fair game to say happiness is in the sugar but then again not everyone is a sweet tooth. Also if chocolate was to contain happiness, should it not give happiness to every single person in this world, the fact that it doesnt means its not in the chocolate but its in ones perception. The issue with this is as bhante explains is that this perception of pleasure/happiness experienced is being extrapolated to the chocolate i.e. the happiness is in the chocolate. This leads to attachment to the chocolate with the wrongly held idea that happiness is out there. As bhante says, all things out there are neutral, it is this mind which creates pleasure or displeasure. One thing I'm wondering is where does the expectation that bhante talks about come into all of this? Would love to hear your thoughts

Thanks 😀 

In a mental asylum, psychic individuals may not perceive the doctor as a medical professional. Instead, they might view the doctor as someone who is mentally unstable, while they consider themselves to be normal. This situation parallels our societal perception of leading a normal life. However, according to the teachings of Buddha, the perfect doctor of the world, we all possess a significant problem in our perception. Despite this, we may not recognize this issue within our own minds. Psychic people in the mental asylum may not recognize the doctor as a doctor. They feel that the doctor is crazy and they are normal beings. Similarly, in society, we may feel that we are living a normal life. However, the perfect doctor born into this world, Buddha, realized that we all have a huge problem in our perception. We do not feel that we have a problem in our minds. Detox Your Mind: A Guide to Surface Inner Peace is an weekly talk series designed to help you explore and understand the science of the mind. This talk series is being published in parallel with our ongoing talk series, which is held every Friday at 7 p.m. AEST (Sydney/ Melbourne time). Benefits of this talk series:

• Enhanced understanding of perception and mental processes
• Improved ability to manage negative thought patterns and emotions
• Greater self-awareness and emotional resilience
• Practical tools to achieve inner peace and reduce mental pressure
• A comprehensive guide to the science of perception and reality

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Jethavanarama Buddhist Monastery, Nugadanda, Kalatuwawa, Sri Lanka. https://www.jethavanaramaviharaya.org/en

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