Someone here

So is your point that trying to overcome suffering is resistance to suffering and it perpetuates suffering? Because I don't disagree in that point . The overcome I'm talking about is not resistance. But acceptance. When something goes wrong, most people resist it. “This shouldn’t be happening!” Goes the inner dialogue. The resistance comes from a good place..a wish for things to be going “right,” and for you to be okay. But it’s not actually doing you any good. Because resistance is the main thing that causes us to suffer when we feel pain.

There is truth to this perspective. However this thread should not be an advanced guide to solve porn addiction .or any addiction really. Maybe most people need to visit therapists .but this is just a simple hack that can ease the way . Everyone ie seeking pleasure and fulfilment in one way or another. Even the religious ascetics never just abstained from the pleasures of the flesh they run towards the pleasures of the spirit. Masochists while inflicting pain search for pleasure. What pleasure is can be discussed, but we are built to seek it. I mean porn is only possible because of built in sexual pleasure centers. Ancient cultures covered women head to toe not because of some "oppresion" but because they knew the impact of seeing skin on the sexual centers. And when I say ancient I mean before WWII. . That is why I think women should cover themselves even today, not because of religious god will kill stuff, but out of care for men and their mental and physical health.

You are the creator of your suffering. This understanding will help you dissolve suffering. An unhappy person in heaven will convert even heaven into hell.ahappy person can convert hell into heaven. So, change is not required anywhere except within you. If you have an unhappy mind, even if you are in heaven, you will ‘stink’. So, to overcome suffering, you have to understand that your unhappy mind is the cause.

I feel what you are saying here. But simple concrete rewards so the instant gratification monkey in our brains is kept under watch is important. seems good. Plus withdrawl feels like shit so any help to boost well being and happinesd is good. I mean people say life without porn .the brain is terrible at such general terms. I mean if you have a girlfriend and without pmo you can watch her in the eye and not feel guilt that is very specific and concrete. I think we also need short term boosts of energy along the road.

Yes. No. Maybe. Not yes, not no; nor not-not yes, nor not-not no. If you are “enlightened” (fully, not simply “awake") you know ain’t no such thing as this “self” to which you refer, rather, there is “It”, which has no meer identification with that which is called “self”. However, sentient beings refer to this “self” as the collection of that which IS here and now, that which identifies with THIS or THAT, HIM or HER, etc. So who is that which is observing, eh? Try to stop thinking of it all in such absolute terms as being black and white; begin to cognize the subtle aspects of the gray instead.

It's the other way around. By dropping desire you become enlightened. Third Noble Truth, the truth of the end of suffering, has dual meaning, suggesting either the end of suffering in this life, on earth, or in the spiritual life, through achieving Nirvana. When one has achieved Nirvana, which is a transcendent state free from suffering and our worldly cycle of birth and rebirth, spiritual enlightenment has been reached

Yeah you keep repeating this as if it were from the VeganAwake holy book. Lemme ask you this ..do you agree that you have a body and mind ? By body I mean this three dimensional meat suit that you're (please let me use the word "you " without questioning my existence lol) wearing..and by mind i mean the generator of thoughts ?

Are you saying that Bottom line ,you can't be certain about anything in the future by defintion because the future is a belief?

What does it mean ? Which language is this ?l guess its Arabic

Meditation is the essence of spirituality and religious mysticism. And meditation is nothing but being .simply being . And prayer is nothing but showing gratitude. Be great and awesome. Because existence gave you this greatness . And this greatness and awesomeness is present all around you everywhere . But we take it for granted . That's one of the most stupid things that you can do .to take life for granted. But the mind does this all the time . It filters out the magic of existence to be able to put it into boxes and dissect it logically. Just look at a sunrise .imagine you are on the beach at 5 AM and you are seeing the sunrise. The morning has infinite beauty .yet we take it for granted "so what? It's just another morning. This has happend millions of times before .and it will continue to happen millions of times in the future ". That sort of attitude is fundamentally what disconnects you from God and from the infinite goodness of reality.

No need to apologise .I appreciate everyone's perspectives .and your post made me think deeply and grow. Thank you ?. BTW surely the Buddha knows better than me . Who am I to compare myself with him ?

Taoists sought happiness or supreme good by severing themselves completely free from worldly interests and passionate desires until release from all activity was attained (wu wei ).so its simmiar to Buddhism in this regard .

I often say that life is like a play and this play revolves around one theme : want and desire. Our desires are like a bottomless pit. We’re always seeking, never satisfied. This plays out in all aspects of our life. When eating, we don’t just eat to sustain our bodies and appease hunger; we crave good-tasting food. For our home, it isn’t enough to have a modest place that shelters us from the elements; we desire comfortable surroundings, the bigger and more luxurious the better. All our life, we work hard to fulfill our desires. One dream fulfilled spawns another. We seek happiness, but for most of us, we think happiness comes with having more. Instead of being content with an ordinary, simple life, our vanity causes us to want more wealth, success, glory, power, and so on. Our ambitions are endless. But the truth is, more isn’t necessarily better and it can have adverse effects. In our endless pursuit of our desires, we actually create much suffering for ourselves. The Buddhist sutras tell us that people with many desires suffer greatly because they’re constantly seeking self-benefit and gain. When we give rise to desire, we act in order to seek things. When we can’t get what we want, afflictions arise and we suffer. We might get into arguments with people over what we want. We might tire ourselves out scheming to get what we want. Our efforts to fulfill our desires bring us much affliction. Those with few desires don’t suffer like this. If we want to get rid of our afflictions, we have to know their source : our desires. We can then get rid of them by being content. Contentment leads to spiritual riches and a sense of satisfaction and happiness with what we already have. With fewer desires, we can sleep soundly at night without worries. Our heart can be at peace. After all, what do we really come into the world for? What is life really about? Only by turning toward the Dharma can we begin to understand life’s true value and purpose.

Consciousness.

I am certain I'm going to finish typing this sentence. Because Will.

@Leo Gura you talked about tapping into creativity in your last video..I really liked it and the video was awesome and it helped me get motivated to pursue my life purpose seriously. I want to become a philosopher. Just like you . Bold statement. I know. That's just how I am. But on a serious note... How does one become a philosopher? What books should I read and how should I conduct my life? I know that to some of you I'm being silly. But believe me when I say that I'm very serious with this whole thing. How can I become a renowned philosopher who gets recognized worldwide the same way people like Nietzsche and Socrates are recognized? Is formal education necessary? Or can I get by, by reading books?

How is this replacing addictions ?

I did give a solution. You suffer because you desire endlessly. The solution then is to drop desire and to accept reality unconditionally. It doesn't get any simpler and clearer than this . The idea of acceptance as an antidote to suffering may seem counterintuitive and difficult to grasp. However, take a second to think about it. When you suffer, like when having your heart broken or experiencing grief, more pain arises from resisting or denying that you feel bad in the first place. Suppressing those strong emotions can only make things worse and even cause us to act out in unhealthy, destructive ways. I basically agree partially. Focusing on what's missing is the second side of desire coin. Buddhist psychology makes a clear distinction between pain and suffering. Pain is an unavoidable aspect of the natural world. It is physical, biological, and social, woven into our existence as night is with day, as inevitable as hard and soft, as hot and cold. In this human incarnation we experience a continuous ebb and flow of pleasure and pain, gain and loss. Inhabiting our human society is the same: we encounter praise and blame, fame and disrepute, success and failure, arising and passing constantly. this thread is titled "according to Buddhism ". so I'm specifically highlighting the Buddha's perspective on what causes suffering. The Buddha attributes all forms of suffering, whether physical pain or an emotional struggle, to two factor: impermanence. And desire . I talked about desire enough. Now let's However talk about impermanence people feel better when having a sense of predictability. This makes them deny the simple truth that nothing stays the same. Rather than surrender to change, people fight against it. We try to keep things the same; our job, our partners, our friends, our homes, our communities. Then, when the world around us changes, as it will eventually, this causes anger, sadness, and frustration. And yet, change is inevitable. Rather than constantly clinging to the past, or grasping for something better, the Buddha recommends accepting things as they are, at this very moment, by living fully in the present. That means letting go of the past so we can fully appreciate all that exists right now. In this way, we live in harmony with nature, always changing. We open ourselves to all that the present moment has to offer and do not struggle against the current of impermanence. I basically agree and that's also what the Buddha teaches. @Razard86

I addressed your two points. Your first point about me not giving a solution to the problem of suffering. To that i replied that by understanding the root of suffering (which is desire ) you can automatically bring suffering to an end by dropping desire and getting absorbed in meditation( no mind). when you understand the disease fully you automatically know the medication. So if it's a stomach ache you need to take stomach ache pills and so on ... And to your next point about suffering not depending much on desire but rather "focusing on what's missing ". Yeah that's the same thing as craving. You crave something because you feel that something is missing and you want to fill the gaps in your life with all kinds of material possessions. But it always falls short . The Buddha said, “All I teach is suffering and the end of suffering.” Suffering in his teaching does not necessarily mean grave physical pain, but rather the mental suffering we undergo when our tendency to hold onto pleasure encounters the fleeting nature of life, and our experiences become unsatisfying and ungovernable. The simple teaching of the first noble truth,ls the truth of suffering, may be the most difficult to understand and accept. But it's enough into itself to put an end to suffering. We keep thinking that if we just fix this or fix that, tweak here or there, we can avoid it. We think that if we were smarter, prettier, wealthier, more powerful, living somewhere else, younger, older, male, female, with different parents....you name it...that things would be different. But things are not different.they are as bad as they seem. Since it is unrealistic to hope for a stress-free life, and that would not be all that good in any case, it makes more sense to learn how to deal with the stresses that inevitably arise.

Well, in Buddhist philosophy, the ego self is an illusion that does not exist, this is distinct from the spirit. which is pure mind, our real identity. I agree with this philosophy, as I understand that our ego is formed by social shaping, which makes us appear to be something that we’re really not. But don't forget that you don't exist as a separate self. That's the illusion of separation .but you exist as pure consciousness itself. When you wake up from a dream.. you don't say that you were a character because you are the creator of that dream. The entire dream (not the dream elements) is actually you.. not only the character you're playing. The other characters that appear on that dream are just components that make up the whole dream.. they don't have a life of their own to wake up at the same time with you. Don't take this too literal.. just that in real life you're not a character or a human, you're the entire Universe that you're experiencing right now. This is not solipsism . This is absolute oneness and nonduality.

The understanding of the cause of suffering will automatically allow you to overcome it . If you understand that desire and longing to change your present condition constantly is what sits at the root of your misery and dissatisfaction in life ..then you automatically work on bringing the mind to rest and abandon desires as much as possible. Suffering comes from craving things and also from events in a person's life, such as birth, old age and death. People go through various types of suffering. For example: People go through emotional pain (eg someone says something that upsets someone else) and physical pain (eg when a person has an injury.) In life things don’t stay the same and are always changing, which can cause suffering. For example, some people enjoy it when the sun is shining. If they are outside enjoying the sunshine and the weather changes, this may make them sad. People are attached to many different things, including people and material possessions. When they lose these things, they suffer. Buddhists try to realise that people cannot hold on to everything in life as this will bring about suffering.

Yeah pretty much that sums it up. It's basically being unable to be satisfied with the current moment, regardless of what you're doing . Its this habit of projecting yourself into the future in hopes that a different moment in time will provide you more than what the current moment has to offer... and it never stops. It occurred to me this weekend while enjoying the National Park (one of my absolute passions) that i was still not pleased or at peace while doing something i have come to thoroughly enjoy... Even on the side of the park I was projecting myself someplace else because i felt "this wasn't good enough"... These emotions cause me to carry out an array of random acts in hopes of satisfying my craving for a new form of stimulation... anything from checking my phone every 5 minutes for social media updates, to engaging in smoking cigarettes , channel surfing for hours without deciding on a program. My brain always finds away to become distracted from the current moment and seek a way out of it. The fact that im aware of this behavior does motivate me to continue to open this new level of consciousness

@Kksd74628 The feeling of a me, the sense of a me in the body dissappeared…now there is sensation as life or awareness as this. The body is sensation but not my sensation. With the sense of an individual me not here, any division or separation as life is not here either as the separation was the sense of me but when I was that me (again “I” is used but not felt) that me had no idea it was in the way, that me was the looker, the seeker and it was the dream veiling life that's not two. The sense of self did not destroy itself, it can not because its not real in the first place. Like dreaming yourself awake, it can not be done. It's Grace.. Amazing Grace… It has nothing to do with selves or personal will. Its also exceptionally ordinary and unseen, unnoticeable to another. In a funny ironic way even though it has no person to it, its deeply personal. Lol. Just like all duality meets here and is neither and both at the same time. Everything is here while nothing is here and none of it makes any sense. That's what's so wonderful about it, the mind can not grasp… Mind is absolutely impotent here.. Love.

I like to distinguish between the false ego self and the true Self. The ego self is a construction of mind. Even the tree you see is a construction of mind so it is not so far fetched that this elaborate mind construction of a self is nothing more than delusion. It is however very necessary and useful . Without a sense of self you wouldn't know who's shoes to put on in the morning, as Alan Watts puts it lol.