everyday overture
Everyday I am greeted by a emotional overture which I believe sets the standard for the consistent stress theme of the music of my mind. I feel as if this observation may be a useful insight that may resonate with others. I am initially going to begin this by stating this idea that I would like you to keep in the back of your mind throughout this post. Biologically I suspect that my hormones have a massive influence upon my conscious thought. I am not attempting to cause you to begin to suspect that I have a hormonal imbalance, its just that, perhaps hormones have a much more significant influence over conscious thought than we acknowledge from moment to moment as human beings. I believe this is an acceptable preface for this post, now I want to move into the body which will lead to the final conclusion of my thought.
The first two noble truths of Buddhas four noble truths I think will be precisely where this post will center. So what are the first two noble truths? So the first one is that what is a fundamental feature of being a being that has some form of awareness? All beings that have awareness are equipped with some detector of pain or a detector that notifies it that something unpleasant is currently occurring unto its being. So whenever a phenomena is then alerted of this unpleasant occurrence, it then enters a state that we can then call a state of suffering. So since all objects that posses awareness or consciousness are equipped with detectors that can then alert them of some unpleasant occurrence effecting said object, whenever this notification begins to pester said conscious entity we can then safely say it has passed into a realm of suffering. Phew a lot of words to simply state the first noble truth. The first noble truth is that in life there is suffering. So now what is the second truth? The second truth is that we then ask, what is the cause of passing into the realm of suffering? The cause we can then say by observing the reaction of a conscious being that is subjected to painful conditions. Grasping and reaching for solutions to escape and find alternative conditions in which to subject its consciousness to away from whatever is issuing the pain. The act of grasping and reaching for other conditions is precisely the motions and actions that define the act of suffering. By responding to whatever it is that is issuing the painful conditions by trying to escape them, one begins to play the part of something experiencing suffering.
So I personally am trying to find out how to condition myself to be one who ceases reacting with mannerism that resemble suffering individual. Practicing the art of mindfulness appears to be a brilliant strategy in providing oneself with a powerful mental practice that exits the conditioned reactions of suffering. There are two other truths to Buddhas four noble truths which are: the end of suffering, and the path to the end of suffering. But the order seems strange in that shouldn't the end of suffering be the very last truth? Well first one come to the realization that there is such a thing as ending suffering, but ending suffering requires a long journey. So to reach the final destination of the complete cessation of suffering one must learn of the path they must follow, although, knowledge that your not traveling the path in vain of ever reaching an end is possible to be obtained. I am still at the beginning of my life long journey!
So now I am going to try to wrap this up with the idea that inspired me to write this. Back to the topic of hormones and a questions I've been struggling with for quite awhile now. The entire idea of celibacy and devoting oneself to seeking liberation from suffering. So I initially talked about my pesky hormones, in particular testosterone for me. My physiological urge that I previously called the emotional overture I awake to day after day. I am not at all trying to label myself as a sexual addict, but I have noticed that a large portion of the fundamental basis of how I categorize my rational is rooted in the category of intimate companionship. Since this is the case, a large portion of my decisions are calibrated such that they intend on optimizing physical pleasure and beauty. Potentially a bit embarrassing to explicitly express, but I do suspect there is great value in publicly expressing my thoughts in that I hold myself to a standard of absolute transparency.
This is beginning to drift into a questions that has really bothered me for quite sometime. Is my love for music somehow related to human sexuality? Such a thought makes something I categorize as beautiful get a ugly stain upon it and I really dislike that. In my mind, the concept of beauty and music are essentially the same concepts, so perhaps I can remove the word of music because I am too fond of that word. Can my love for the concept of beauty be separately isolated from human sexuality? Ah, now we are returning to the beginning of the post. How much of the 'self' which is generated by the ego is frames of memory that don't involve hormones that contain sexual content?
So after those big questions, back to the topic of ceasing human suffering. What did we arrive at that described human suffering? Grasping or reaching for conditions that exit the realm of suffering. So biologically what are some of the most basic things that will cause the alert system to notify one of unpleasant circumstances? Hunger? Pain? Reproduction? So there is strategy for food, we are pretty good naturally at avoiding physical pain, emotional pain is much more tricky. What about reproduction? Starting to build a family, huh. Well that seems to be a fairly relevant question. It also involves a large portion of human psychology, that being, sexuality. Oh, so grasping for some alternative option in the mannerism of one who is suffering you say? Perhaps now I can safely comprehend the choice of celibacy. Although I think I understand the logic of such a choice doesn't at all mean I will travel the path successfully. The least I can do is initally share my thoughts because they seem like useful realizations to me.
Cheers
周培森