Pleasure

CAUTION: I use a dirty word in this one. If you are under 18, you will have to wait until you are old enough to read this.

“Do not let pleasure distract you
From meditation, from the way.”
- Dhammapada

I don’t like this chapter very much. Admittedly, I misinterpret the meaning. If I look closely at the meaning of the text, it doesn’t say anything about giving up pleasure. If it did, I would probably stop this experiment right now. However, the words do lean toward pointing out some of my “problems”.

I like pleasure. I like the sensual, the passionate, the poisonous fruit of desire. I like the feeling of wanting to hold someone. I like wanting to feel a soft hand in mine. I like craving the caress of a passionate kiss. I like wanting to do something with my life. I like placing importance on things I do and want to do. I like ice cream and comfy sheets and long hot showers. And so, according to the words of the way(again, purposefully misinterpreted), I suffer.

Is it pleasure, per se, which is the corruption of our souls or is it ill-gotten pleasure Siddhartha warned us about?

I often use the example of making love versus fucking to illustrate the difference. Fucking someone or getting fucked is a very lonely and ugly experience – an amplification of our solitude and yearning for companionship. Fucking is suffering. However, if you follow the directions, or if you use a causal GPS, it’s not fucking, it’s making love. Making love goes beyond the physical. It goes beyond the cerebral. It even goes beyond emotion. Making love touches the subtle body which exists beyond the dimensions of existence we comprehend. It is union. Union is the mud and water and seed and air from which the lotus blooms. It makes us stronger, not weaker.

I think I will stick with pleasure for a while. As I go, I’ll try to choose my pleasure carefully instead of stumbling into the night with a fruit I can not call by name.