There is no thing as free pleasure

[AION]

They weren't saying anything about psychedelics but it is also applicable on that subject. Everything that is overwhelmingly good with minimal effort is bad for your health.

Edited yesterday at 08:19 AM by AION

[UnbornTao]

A reminder to allow ourselves to get bored every once in a while - to shut off every distraction for a while.

Edited 23 hours ago by UnbornTao

[Malkom]

Why is everyone so obsessed with dopamine? Dopamine isn't related to pleasure. Things are much more interesting there, but we need a neurobiologist to explain that. But I can say for sure that focusing on dopamine is completely unnecessary.

[Lunatic]

    “The basic mechanism of desire is, first, we create a lack and then desire whatever is necessary to fill that lack. The desire creates thoughts. The thoughts cover the Self and this makes us unhappy. Then we look to relieve that unhappiness by fulfilling the desire which momentarily stills the thoughts. The stilling of thoughts removes a bit of the cover of the Self and it’s the feeling of a bit more of the Self that We call pleasure. We wrongly attribute that joy or pleasure to the thing or person that was used to fulfill the desire to relieve the agony of the thoughts of desire that were covering the Self. Because of this wrong attributing of the joy to the person or thing, the desire will never be satiated because the joy is not in the person or thing. The only possibility of satiety is to remain in your Self!” (Levenson 1993, _Keys to the Ultimate Freedom: Thoughts and Talks on Personal Transformation_, 109–110)

    “__Lester:__ You are making the physical thing the joy and it isn’t. The real thing is that you are that joy, only a million times more so! As high as the feeling is that you get from sex, you can go way, way beyond that feeling in joy, and have it twenty-four hours a day.” (Levenson 1993, _Keys to the Ultimate Freedom: Thoughts and Talks on Personal Transformation_, 264)

    https://archive.org/details/keys-to-the-ultimate-freedom-thoughts-and-talks-on-personal-transformation-leste

    “Love is what you are already. … Sometimes you may seem to trade love for the stressful thought appearing in the moment. It’s a little trip out into illusion. Seeking love is how you lose the awareness of love. But you can only lose the awareness of it, not the state. That’s not an option, because love is what we all are. That’s immovable. When you investigate your stressful thinking and your mind becomes clear, love pours into your life, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” (Katie and Katz 2005, _I Need Your Love-- Is That True? How to Stop Seeking Love, Approval, and Appreciation and Start Finding Them Instead_, 245–256)

    There may be more fitting excerpts.