Sex: desire, reality, freedom (Ajahn Chah)

SOAD "Roulette," Ajahn Chah via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

"Hot single gal seeks sexy hunk to electrify her" my girlfriend spelled out in her selfie.

What do you see? Sex? It's an optical illusion.

This momentum of [intensive meditation and full-time mindfulness] practice leads us toward freedom from the incessant Cycle of Death and Rebirth.

Why haven’t we escaped this cycle yet? It's because we still insist on craving and clinging [lusting and attaching].

We may not commit unwholesome or immoral acts, but refraining from them only means we are living in accordance with the Dhamma of virtue (sila, morality).

Youthful lust and obsession in the woods.

For instance, in the chant when people ask that beings "not be separated from the things they love and are fond of," if you think about it, this is very childish. It’s the way of people who can’t let go.

This is the nature of human desire -- the desire [wishing, longing, yearning] for things to be other than the way they are -- wishing for long life, hoping there will be no aging, sickness, or death. This is how people hope and desire.

When you tell them that whatever desires they have that are unfulfilled cause suffering (disappointment), it clobbers them right over the head. What can they say? Nothing! It’s the truth. You’re pointing right at their desires.

When we talk about desires, we know that everyone has them and wants them fulfilled. Nobody is willing to stop, nobody really wants to escape from disappointment (suffering).

• [Except that people do want to temporarily "escape" discomfort by the granting of their wishes and gaining of their desires, which will still leave us all unfulfilled -- because conditioned "things" (with the sole exception of nirvana, which is the only unconditioned element in all the universe and therefore not a "thing"), by their very nature, have Three Universal Marks: They're disappointing (unfulfilling), impermanent (hurtling toward destruction), and impersonal (devoid of a self/empty)].

"Breathe, just breathe..." (anapanasati).

Therefore, our practice must be patiently refined down.

Those who practice steadfastly, without deviation or slackness, and who have a gentle and restrained manner, always persevering with constancy [persistence that balances effort and calm], those will be the happy ones who know.

No matter what arises, they will remain firm and unshakeable. [They will win the stream to nirvana by entering the first stage of enlightenment called "stream-winning."]