So many of the people I talk with really believe that they want spiritual awakening, and with a little looking find out that what they're really after is pleasure. We think we want Truth, but what we usually want is to feel better. Which is perfectly normal. However, what I often see is that as soon as one feels better, the desire for Truth (or awakening) suddenly seems unimportant.
It is important that we strive to feel better, but mistaking the desire for spiritual awakening for pleasure is like mistaking a band aid for total health.
Pleasure is great, I encourage it...but to believe that pleasure, or feeling good, will last in the long run is to invite yourself over and over into suffering.
The happiness or fulfillment of awakening is much more like spaciousness. In open space there is a sense of clarity, openness, freedom, and of non-changing.
So let's be very very clear about what it is that we're after...
Do we just want one more good feeling?
One more experience?
Real spaciousness and what is discovered in authentic spiritual awakening is really the end of all that...This is the wilingness to bear pain, to bear hardship, to bear suffering without running for a dose of pleasure.
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