Q3-20080406-Larry_Rosenberg-CIMC-king_pasenadi_goes_on_a_diet_part_2_also_self_knowing_a_quiet_passi

Talk: 20080406-Larry_Rosenberg-CIMC-king_pasenadi_goes_on_a_diet_part_2_also_self_knowing_a_quiet_passion_36-6514 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 01:12:41 Display_question: I would like to share about my experience with cravings, and what I learned about the connection between craving, attachment, and suffering. Keyword_search: craving, choice, suffering, Buddha, wisdom, understanding, letting go, attachment, non-attachment, acupuncturist, Ajahn Cha, experiential learning Question_content: Questioner: One day I saw I had no craving, and I was very surprised. I said, oh I have no craving today. And other days I do. And one time I ate… I really like some chocolate bits from Trader Joes. They don't go into any brownies, but just go to my mouth. And I remember telling someone that I was having an acupuncture treatment. And she was like, oh, your spleen is low. And I kept telling her, I have very good diet. Ahh, I said, I did have a few sweets. Ah, she said. And, last night I was faced with a choice. Can you hear me? Larry: Yes. Questioner: I thought, oh, I would like something sweet. And I was faced with a choice. Shall I take it? And my mind was already saying, it’s just a little bit, you've had a hard day. And the other side was saying, but then you pay a price. Your spleen would be low. The acupuncturist will tell…you need to put more needles over there. And I thought, you know what? It's not worth it. So, it was good… Larry: Okay. Yes. Questioner: Doesn't mean that I won't go back to craving anything. Larry: No, we can't rest on any laurels, in my experience. But look, here's typically how the mind works. And this may be an example of what you mean. Typically, we overestimate the satisfaction that, what we crave will provide, and we underestimate the price that we're paying for it, in terms of suffering, or whatever health, or something damaging. And wisdom is starting to learn. See, what the Buddha is saying here is, to learn your way out of this problem. It's not just a grim act of will like, I'm just going to not eat that anymore. I am going to be moderate. It isn't that. It's through seeing, it's through wisdom, through understanding. But wisdom, real wisdom, not just wise words, is premised on mindfulness, plus wise attention, and so forth. And out of that can come a quality of learning, which enables you to stop doing it out of understanding. Understanding can have… when I say bone deep, that means the understanding is so deep that, you don't want to do it anymore. It's just stupid. You don't need to do it. Questioner: I also believe that I didn’t have that sense of dissatisfaction. It was okay. Larry: Alright, but let's say you did. So then that's what you practice with, but not to try and get rid of it, but just to see how much you're still holding on to it. And that the holding produces suffering. And little by little…see, we hear a lot about letting go, non-attachment, and we're in a hurry to do that. That sounds good. It is. But one teacher I had, Ajahn Cha. He was great. He said, don't be in a hurry to let go. Find out. Do you really know that attachment leads to suffering, craving, and attachment? Say, oh, yeah, you know, we read it, and we hear it over, and over again. It makes sense. But that isn't the kind of knowing. In a moment of really holding on, and not being in a hurry to let go, but seeing the price we pay for that. Then the learning is at a deeper level. Is everyone... do you follow what I'm trying to say? It's experiential learning. It's not just up here. End_time: 01:16:07