Principle 6 Pleasure – Week 3 – 2024

June 14, 2024 

Principle 6. Pleasure. Third Week

“If you pursue pleasure, you enchain yourself to suffering. But as long as you do not harm your health, enjoy without inhibition when the opportunity presents itself.” 

Last time: To Eat or Not to Eat.

This Time: Neither the Carrot nor the Stick.

This Week:

Over the last two weeks we considered this principle in general: what it means, and how it fits in with the others, etc. We also looked at how we did or didn’t use this principle in past situations. This week we’ll try to understand how we are applying the principle in the present. 

To help gain some new perspectives we will also play the game of Name It!

- Applying the principle to my current situation.

-Play the game of Name It!

At our next meeting we will discuss our observations, thoughts, reflections, and questions regarding all this.

The Game of the Week.

With your understanding of the principle in mind, try to come up with a new version of the principle, or some aspect of the principle. Then give that new formulation a name that synthesizes it or, in some way captures its essence.

It seems useful to recall that this principle is named “Pleasure”. That is no doubt an important clue as to as to its application. 

For example, I sometimes think of this as:

 The Principle of the Trap.

It says: Whether seeking or fearing pleasure we face the same trap. 

When we fall into this trap it is less about the objects or situations we crave, and more in what we believe about them and how we relate to them. 

What’s your version of the principle? 

What will you name it?

General Considerations and Personal Reflections

Here’s somethings I was thinking about:

Here are some personal reflections. I offer them in the spirit of dialogue and exchange, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about, and experiences with, this principle.

As I tried to meditate on this principle, I kept getting in lost in questions of pursuit and avoidance. I became confused about how to navigate the practicalities of needing to take steps to attain the situations I desire, without pursuing those pleasures. The more I tried to unravel all this the more I seemed to become tangled in confusion.

I found it very helpful to return to first steps and review my basic understanding of the principle, and of course how could it apply to my present situation.

It seemed to me that the central idea was simple and practical – don’t run after pleasures but don’t deny them either; enjoy them when they present themselves. To search for a pleasure when it is a absent, or reject it when it is present, are two seemingly very different things, but both are ways you harm yourself, both carry suffering with them.

So, I asked myself if there was anything in my present situation relating to my family, my living situation, my work — with relationships, security, or sense of self-worth, where I was running after pleasurable outcomes, or denying myself pleasures for incoherent reasons having nothing to do with my unity or contradiction.

Another thing that struck me is that like all the others, this principle should not be taken in isolation. None of the principles should be applied by itself, and none of them should be interpreted in ways that oppose any of the others. For example, in this case there is another principle that says, “When you harm others you remain enchained. When you treat others as you would have them treat you, you liberate yourself”. 

A Secret of Real Magic

 As with so many things the answer doesn’t seem to me to be about absolutes or straight lines, but of working tangentially, indirectly. For example, setting up conditions that seem to encourage those results but not focusing on the outcome. Once again “the magic of the co-presence” comes into play. That’s a theme that is often overlooked or underestimated and one with which we are far from done.  

Remember

It is not indifferent what you do with your life. Your life, subject to laws, is open to possibilities from which you can choose. 

Silo_ The Inner Look, XIII

Worth Repeating:

Learn to surpass pain and suffering in yourself, in those close to you, and in human society.

Silo_ The Path

Coming up:

Next week we’ll continue with the Principle 6, also known as the principle of pleasure. We will be focusing on how this principle might impact our future situations.

And let’s remember to stop now and then and give ourselves a moment of letting go and turning inward. No techniques. No fuss, no muss. Just, a moment.

Note:

These notes have been posted on Facebook and sent to our email list, and, on my website  www.dzuckerbrot.com 

Stay Tuned.