Unexpected Freedom

Truly ComfortableIn the Mahasatipatthana Sutta the Buddha describes themeditator who, experiencing pleasure, just sits withawareness, simply knowing that there is pleasure withoutadding anything to it or taking anything away from it. Buthow do we reach the point of knowing there is pleasurewithout indulging in it, pursuing it and working out how wecan get more of it? We get to that point through restrainingourselves. When pleasurable sensations arise, our habits aresuch that we usually just want to have more of them. There’san impulse to seek pleasure, based on a preference forpleasurable experience. But if we habitually and blindlyfollow such a preference there is an unfortunateconsequence: when there is suffering, we are not able torestrain ourselves from contending with the pain. If weindulge in an habitual preference for more pleasure, we willhabitually make a problem out of pain. But rightunderstanding arises when we become interested in thereality of our preferences. When pleasure arises, are we ableto inhibit the tendency to seek more pleasure? – not becausewe have any opinion about desire, but because we areinterested in the reality of desire? Rather than being driveninto gratifying our desires we then start to feel drawntowards a freedom from blind habit.If we don’t understand that Buddhist practice requiresus to challenge our preferences then we will feel thatpleasure is either something to follow or something toresist or judge. We won’t suspect that there is a middle waybetween these two options. The teaching of the MiddleWay is an encouragement for us to challenge ourpreferences, to undermine the agreeable and disagreeableappearances of things.Sometimes we experience real pain and suffering. I don’tmean just a little pain in the knees; I mean the sense that the113