{"id":431,"date":"2009-02-12T17:22:12","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T17:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/02\/hardcore-dharma-gets-sensual-with-desire.html"},"modified":"2009-02-12T17:22:12","modified_gmt":"2009-02-12T17:22:12","slug":"hardcore-dharma-gets-sensual-with-desire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/02\/hardcore-dharma-gets-sensual-with-desire.html","title":{"rendered":"Hardcore Dharma gets sensual with desire"},"content":{"rendered":"

I missed this weekend of Hardcore Dharma due to a performance gig, but sat down with the podcast to get an idea of what bubbled to the surface from the week\u2019s reading of our Theravaden text In The Buddha\u2019s Words, An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon<\/em>, edited with commentary by Bhikkhu Bodhi.
\nFrom the question of direct experience to Tina Turner to head shops, HC Dharma was all over the map last Saturday.\u00a0 So, in the spirit of Valentine\u2019s Day, I thought we\u2019d focus on that red-hot issue of desire.\u00a0 We got it, we know its kind of problematic, yet we also feel our lives might be empty without it.\u00a0 Frankly, desire seems a human indicator of well-being \u2013 if a relationship is going well, one desires their partner, if one\u2019s health is good then you desire a sandwich.\u00a0 Any depressed person who has ever launched a love affair with a comforter and the cracks in the ceiling knows that you do not<\/span> want to not want.\u00a0 Any depressed person also knows they\u2019re getting better when their answer to \u201cwhat do you want to eat\u201d or \u201cwould you like to take a shower\u201d is not \u201cwhatever\u201d or \u201csame diff\u201d but rather, \u201cpancakes\u201d or \u201cyes.\u201d\u00a0
\nBut the big ole question that comes up in reading these early suttas is, isn\u2019t the Buddha telling us to forgo desire?\u00a0 In\u00a0one of the\u00a0suttas we\u00a0read, the Buddha\u00a0tells a guy named Headman that suffering is rooted in desire.\u00a0 It is because he has desire or attachment to his wife that he would suffer should she be executed.\u00a0 And that without desire there would be no suffering.\u00a0 And we need to transcend desire to escape samsara.\u00a0 Of course, everyone\u2019s immediate reactions are all, \u201charsh!\u201d and I understand that.\u00a0 But I also understand what the sutta is saying: if you are an enlightened being, beyond samsara, you will not feel the kind of attachment towards loved ones that will upset your equanimity should they pass.
\nAnd this brings me to a confession, a thought that\u2019s been accumulating weight in my watery brain over the past few months:
\nI do not want to get enlightened.
\nIt\u2019s true.\u00a0 You know what else?
\nI don\u2019t want to escape samsara.
\nI don\u2019t.
\nI want to be a good person, indulge in sensual pleasure, love my friends and family, do well in my worldly pursuits, get emotional, get attached and suffer when those attachments are severed.\u00a0 I want Buddhism to continue to help to reveal myself, know myself and loosen the grip on my sense of self so that I can be more helpful to others.\u00a0 I want to work at maintaining the excellent sense of perspective that Buddhism provides: the ability to see interdependence, its lessons on impermanence, on loving kindness and maintaining a personal sense of well being.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll tell you right now, I\u2019m pretty set on staying on this samsaric side of the cosmic ocean.
\nNow if any of you know me personally (or even e-personally) it is clear that me saying I don\u2019t want to get enlightened is like a turtle saying they don\u2019t want to be a sports car \u2013 don\u2019t sweat it, Jules, there\u2019s not much danger of that happening anyway.\u00a0 But it\u2019s slightly ironic that my lack of desire to attain enlightenment probably contributes to my attachment to desire.\u00a0 If I was more conditioned towards desiring enlightenment, my grip on worldly desire might loosen.\u00a0 Also, wanting to become enlightened, even if it wouldn\u2019t happen in this lifetime, seems like it might supersize my practice \u2013 make it more effective and easy to cultivate the lay person goals I previously mentioned.\u00a0 As it is, perhaps as my practice deepens over the years I may have a different view.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary to temper what the Buddha says about desire.\u00a0 Yet I wonder if it\u2019s more necessary to throw a mirror up to ourselves and say, yeah.\u00a0 That\u2019s what he\u2019s selling.\u00a0 And\u00a0right now I just\u00a0don\u2019t want to buy.
\nOr maybe that\u2019s a silly speculation.\u00a0 By practicing Buddhism as laypeople are we automatically dismissing the possibility for enlightenment?\u00a0 Have people thought about whether (hypothetically) or not you wish to become enlightened?\u00a0 Escape samsara, love every being as much as you love your mother or husband or wife? Do you have the desire to maintain equanimity should your spouse or child pass?\u00a0 Are these questions beside the point?\u00a0
\nAnd in closing, I\u2019m going to Philadelphia this weekend, so if there\u2019s any recommendations for fun things to see\/do\/eat I will accept them here.\u00a0 I hear there\u2019s a killer vegan cheese steak on the loose.
\n\u00a0
\nHappy Love Day,
\n\u00a0
\nTF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I missed this weekend of Hardcore Dharma due to a performance gig, but sat down with the podcast to get an idea of what bubbled to the surface from the week\u2019s reading of our Theravaden text In The Buddha\u2019s Words, An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon, edited with commentary by Bhikkhu Bodhi. From…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"\nHardcore Dharma gets sensual with desire - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/02\/hardcore-dharma-gets-sensual-with-desire.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hardcore Dharma gets sensual with desire - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I missed this weekend of Hardcore Dharma due to a performance gig, but sat down with the podcast to get an idea of what bubbled to the surface from the week\u2019s reading of our Theravaden text In The Buddha\u2019s Words, An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon, edited with commentary by Bhikkhu Bodhi. 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