EU loves sexy art, like this naked little boy Eros
The Sin (German Die Versündigung) is an 1880 oil on canvas erotic art painting by the renowned German artist Heinrich Lossow (1843–1897) [1, 2, 3].
The painting depicts a hypocritical Catholic monk engaged in what may be rape, molestation, or patriarchal domination but appears to be consensual copulation (fornication) with a cloistered Catholic nun through an iron gate meant to keep them separated, achieved by using an athletic sexual position; the painting uses the chiaroscurotechnique to contrast its two subjects [4].
While little is known of Lossow's formal motivation, the painting is believed to have been a response and thematically linked to the Vatican's secret affair called the Banquet of Chestnuts.
(Sculpt Stone) European sculpture in NY shows cannibalism of children?
KKK active in Spain? No, they're Catholics
The anonymous Catholic monk in the painting is sometimes suspected to be Cardinal Cesare himself [4].
The painting caused shame and humiliation as it exposed Church hypocrisy and corruption. There was an uproar in the Vatican, plus significant controversy and outrage in Germany due to its explicit nature and anti-clerical content [6].
Lossow was formally condemned by the Catholic Church [7, 8] for airing the Church's dirty laundry and speaking out of school about the goings on in the administrative heart of the holy Church.
The location of the disappeared artwork is now unknown, but it is believed to be in private ownership [7, 8, 4], possibly rotting in the vast Vatican Archives, a kind of early Smithsonian system for hiding away inconvenient artifacts and specimens that contradict official narratives. More: The Sin (Lossow)
The body (form) is thought to be most obviously “me,” what “I” regard as the most tangible part of my “self.”
Around it
therefore are constructed many views, all of them distorted and perverted to some extent, which prevent insight arising into the body as
it really is.
This book, Bag of Bones, is a small Buddhist anthology relating to the
body in various ways. It presents material which, if
contemplated by the earnest and sincere student of the Dharma, will eventually provide fruitful insight and,
thereby, freedom from the many cravings, obsessions, addictions, lusts, desires, and fears centered
on the body.
Such thirst for pleasures in which the body is the
instrument (though it is in the heart-mind where they
dwell), awaken and intensify greed of all kinds, for instance, for food and sex and ego boosts of all kinds.
Greed (attraction, grasping, clinging, addiction, attachment) often accompanies pleasurable sensations. Therefore, desire (craving) needs a
rather bitter medicine to combat it.
How can anybody say this body is unattractive?
So the number of items contained here on the unattractiveness of the body, its decay
and death — all unpleasant matters — is high. Some of the material concerned with bodily unattractiveness is like a healing balm that need only be taken while the disease of greedy-lust is
active. Afterwards, it may be discontinued and set aside.
It is important
to understand this so as not to form the mistaken impression
that the Buddha advocated viewing all beauty as loathsome. There is a great deal of beauty in this world, not all of which causes us to become obsessed with harmful things.
It is only that there is a hook hidden in beauty, an unseen danger that gets tangled with
the greed in one’s heart and leads to more and more
complications and difficulties.
Fears center around aging and disease, decay and death. They
are never overcome by pretending they do not exist. Ostriches are said to bury their heads in the sand at the approach of
enemies.
Only resolutely facing the inevitable features of
life can bring insight and the dispelling of fear.
The Buddha’s instructions on how to contemplate the body
are addressed to those who are able, through their lifestyle,
to practice them.
This means in effect monks and nuns, novices, together with dedicated lay people. The former group have
this contemplation given to them by their monastic teachers at the
time of going-forth from the homebound to the left-home life, which is when we might most need such a medicine to combat lust.
Lust hurts and often harms anyone, but it can completely destroy the high life of someone training in monasticism.
Laypeople keeping the Five Precepts
have contentment with their partners as an important part
of their practice. Sex is a natural part of their life but should
still be restrained and kept within the bounds of the Third
Precept. If not, how much trouble might follow!
But some few may wish to live without sexual attachments, and this cannot
be done in the way of Dhamma (the Buddha's Teaching or natural truth) by ignoring the power of
our human sexual drive or by repressing and suppressing it.
Only when it is
treated with mindfulness (nonjudgmental awareness and observation) can it be transcended. It does not last forever. It is overcome by the first meditative absorption and uprooted by the stages of enlightenment.
The aspect
of mindfulness needed for this is the subject, or
rather the interrelated subjects, of this book.
Bhutan: Last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom
In today's world we are subjected to a mass media bombardment
of sensuality. Sex especially is
used as the bait (attractant) to sell things, a titillation of sensory
experience.
When this is continued, defilements of mind, notably lust, greed, and
attachment, are sure to be strengthened. When this has
happened, the result is not more happiness but only an increase of disappointment (dukkha, stress, ill, woe), suffering, trouble, and difficulties.
I stared until they started to look like skeletons, bags of bones, all of them. I ought to let go, become a monk, and gain enlightenment because flesh and bones are gross. I didn't tell them.
.
The medicine
for such over-indulgence and over-stimulation is given here.
It is said that this subject of meditation is unique to the
Buddha’s Teachings, the Dhamma, and that elsewhere it is not clearly
taught.
This is unsurprising as we find that desire is
sometimes accepted as being “natural.” Wherever desires
are viewed as “natural,” that is, inherent in one’s nature or
self, nothing much can be done about them.
But the Buddha
analyzed desires into those which are wholesome — the zeal to
practice Dhamma, for instance — and the unwholesome
ones, among which are greediness and lust.
They may not be
gross either, as in the case of the meditator who is greedy
for bliss, or visions, psychedelic experiences, and attached to such things.
The
Buddha has provided the medicine for all unwholesome
desires, and according to our various ways of life we can
use it to effect partial or complete cures.
When the emphasis is so much on sensuality, youth, and
beauty as we find now, the darker sides of life get pushed
away and attempts are made, always unsuccessful, to sweep
them under the rug. Those who try to do so will not be
pleased with the exercises contained in the Buddha’s
contemplation of the body as it really is.
Such things will appear to them
as morbid and unnatural, offensive and repulsive. Yet, they are also a part of this life
and should not be ignored. And if the effort is made to
ignore what is unpleasant about the body, sooner or later
one will be jolted into the recognition of these things.
Such
jolts are not pleasant. Rather than leave it until one is forced to know the body’s unpleasant sides, it is better to acquaint
one’s emotions with this knowledge gradually.
In this spirit, Bag of Bones is being published.
Unfortunately,
being only a book, it cannot give person-to-person advice on
special problems. It can only offer some general guidelines
to people who are interested in reducing their greediness and
lust.
It's only skin deep for reptilian hybridization
A word of warning: meditation on the unattractiveness
of the body can be very potent and should only be practiced
with moderation and care, especially if one has no personal
contact with a teacher of Buddhist meditation.
If fear and
anxiety, or other extreme unwholesome emotional states
arise after practice of it, then it will be better to lay it down
and take up loving kindness (mettā) or recollection of the
Buddha (Buddhānussati) as one’s meditation instead.
This book, therefore, is not so much for beginners in
Buddhism but rather for those who have already practiced
for some time. May it inspire many people to practice the
Dhamma more intently!
73 corpses, 600 crocodiles discovered in Thai temple linked to meditation practice | GRAVITAS | WION
(WION) Dec. 3, 2024: GRAVITAS. In a shocking discovery, Thai police uncovered 73 [donated] corpses at a Buddhist temple in Phichit Province, allegedly used for a controversial "[mindfulness of] death meditation" practice.
The Theravada Buddhist temple, which also houses [cares for] over 600 crocodiles [in a fenced off pond], has sparked national outrage [international curiosity] as authorities investigate the bizarre rituals [monastic practices].
Watch the full story to learn more about this chilling [and blood curdling and utterly inexplicable] revelation [that is a lot like Hindu occultAghori Shiva-the-Destroyer-worshipping cannibalsadhuactivity in India made infamous by investigative journalist and controversial Christian scholar (Zealot) Dr. Reza Aslan, Ph.D. and a 2015 episode of his show Believer, which was accused of "religion porn" and anti-Hinduism].
#thai #temple #worldnews
Reza Aslan eats with Hindu cannibals
Buddhist reflections on death
Is there anything sexier than this bag of bones?
Paṭikkūlamanasikāra [1] is a Pāli (Buddhist language) term generally translated as "reflections on repulsiveness or the foul." It refers to a traditional Buddhist meditation whereby 31 parts of the body are contemplated (beginning from the inside) in a variety of ways. In addition to developing mindfulness (sati) and stillness (samādhi), this form of meditation helps the monastic practitioner overcome lust and sensual craving. Along with cemetery contemplations such as the contemplation of the nine stages of decay, this type of reflection or systematic contemplation is one of the two meditations on the naturally "foul" or "unattractive" (asubha) aspects of the body we love, cling to, consider beautiful, and lust after. More
ABOUT:
WION (the World Is One News) examines global issues with in-depth analysis. It provides much more than the news of the day. Its aim is to empower people to explore their world. With a global headquarters in New Delhi, it brings news on the hour, by the hour. It delivers information that is [never sensational or distorted and] not biased. It is journalists who are neutral to the core and non-partisan when it comes to world politics. People are tired of biased reportage [like "bodies found in temple for strange ritual"] and it stands for a globalized united world. So for it, the World is truly One.
(Lion's Roar) It was this Burmese Buddhist monk’s first visit to America, and it was my first real visit with a monk. He was staying at a house in the Chicago suburbs, teaching anapanasati meditation — “watching the breath” — to anyone interested enough to stop by.
I was eager to learn how to meditate (without bursting out laughing, like the first time I tried it), so he invited me to come and hang out for a few days.
The Dharma of Star Wars
Those five days in late October were a cultural exchange. The monk taught me how to watch my breath: in-out, in-out, breathing in, breathing out. And if I remember correctly, I got him to watch Star Wars.
On the morning of October 31st, somewhat disconnected from the world, I suddenly remembered it was Halloween. I explained that children might be coming by that night trick-or-treating and that we should be ready. He’d never heard of Halloween and asked me to tell him about it. So I did.
I gave him the lowdown on the holiday: ghosts, goblins, costumes, skeletons…
“Skeletons!” he exclaimed suddenly. “That is wonderful, wonderful! In Burma we do skeleton meditation[charnel groundcontemplations on repulsiveness]. Very good, very good. We must get a skeleton! Continue.”
Then I explained trick-or-treating.
“Oh, that is wonderful. So much opportunity for giving. We must have lots of candy for the children and tell them all to come here. Wonderful, wonderful!”
"Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose" is wise advice either way.
.
Why are you always so cheerful, R2D2?
So we hopped in the car, and I drove him to a big discount store. Or at least tried to — it was raining hard, and my windshield wipers were stuck, so I couldn’t see anything. We got lost, ending up on a highway I never meant to take.
“No matter,” he said, reassuring me with a serene smile. “This is wonderful. Now I am seeing more of this city. Very good.”
When we finally found the store, I took him to the Halloween aisle, where he carefully scrutinized the skeletons to find one that would serve our purpose best. And what would that purpose be, exactly? I wasn’t sure whether we were going to hang the skeleton on the outside of the front door or sit facing it with legs crossed, contemplating our mortality.
In the end he settled on the biggest one he could find, a four-foot hanging skeleton made of black-and-white cardboard bones strung together that glowed in the dark. I grabbed as many bags of candy as I could afford with the cash I had on hand (my favorite brands, of course).
There were already a few people in costume out and about, buying last-minute supplies. My monk friend was wearing the same [Buddhist saffron, purplish, ochre, pumpkin-colored] rusty-brown robe he wore every day, wrapped around him like a pleated toga and rubber flip-flops totally unsuited to the fall weather.
In the checkout line, we received lots of puzzled looks and raised eyebrows as people tried to figure out what exactly this guy was supposed to be dressed up as.
When we got back to the house, my monk friend started shoving the one-pound bags of bite-size candy bars, unopened, up against the windows.
“This is so the children will know we have candy for them,” he said, beaming with pride.
“They will see the candy and they will come here.”
I explained that having the lights on would probably be a good enough sign and that hanging the skeleton on the door would also be, um, a dead giveaway. I suggested we put the candy on a tray, but he insisted we leave at least one bag where the kids would be most likely to see it [and know where to put the rock to grab it]. He put the rest into a big salad bowl.
Finally, shortly after dark, the first kids arrived.
“TRICK OR TREAT!” the little voices shouted as the monk opened the door, then their eyes went wide. “What are you supposed to be?” they asked, looking up, amazed and befuddled by his costume.
“I am Buddhist monk!” he said, grinning. That didn’t quite register with the kids, who quickly shifted their attention to the candy on offer.
“Take more, take more!” he insisted. “We must giveif we want to receive.”
After closing the door, he turned to me with a radiant smile.
“All my life I have begging bowl. But this is not begging bowl. Today I have giving bowl! Wonderful, wonderful. I like Halloween!”
The next day, my monk friend sat and stared serenely at the glow-in-the-dark skeleton, contemplating [the repulsive aspects of this body and] his own mortality, while I munched on leftover bite-size candy bars, contemplating my unusual Buddhist Halloween.
AUTHOR: Peter Aronson is a freelance journalist and former NPR contributor currently living in Dharamsala, India. In addition to his writing, he is attending courses in Buddhism at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
Peter Aronson (lionsroar.com); edited and expanded by Team Halloween and Sayalay Scary, Wisdom Quarterly
How to celebrate our American Buddhist freedoms most gloriously on this long Independence Day weekend?
First, the Boss says we have to work Friday. She's obviously never heard of rapper Kid Cudi and his "Pursuit of Happiness" because, like Project X which was filmed in Pasadena, we say F that.
"Independence" means taking days off when you feel like it. It was better in pagan times (according to scholar Dr. Hillman) in Europe when there were many more holy days to explore the Mysteries (initiation cults of the goddesses), when gentiles enjoyed almost as many holidays as Jews still do. We'll all call in sick and it should be fine.
And "bodily autonomy" means taking off everything down to our birthday suits if we feel like it -- if not everywhere, at least somewhere. Are we slaves to Judeo-Christian uptight morality or hippies who value personal freedoms above all things?
(DJ Chesley) Reconnaissance trip to Black's Beach, nudist California
(DJ Chesney) California's best nude beach? Vlog 1: It was Valentine's Day 2018, when DJ and Oliver decided to visit Black's Beach. It's one of the only nude beaches in Southern California. There's a better one. It is breathtakingly beautiful, mainly due to the scenery, not so much the naked people.
(Derek Sarno) Learn these vegan BBQ ideas from 2020: Plant Chef Derek Sarno takes backyard vegan BBQ to a whole new level. BBQ grilled veggie main dishes will elevate any chef's grill cookout game. Here are three grilled vegetable recipes to get started #veganchef#BBQ#veganbbq. Healthy ramen? High protein and low carb instant ramen soup: shop.immieats.com
Second, with this heatwave and not a cloud in the sky, it's time to hit the coast of Santa Monica Bay. Six beaches in Los Angeles are brown flagged, meaning the bacteria levels are too high to swim in, but the secret nude beach should be fine. If swimming nude is good enough for the dolphins, it's good enough for us. (Bikinis optional with some sunbathing).
Except the perchlorate and other "forever chemicals" from the Great American 4th of July Pastime of "drinking beer and playing with explosives" has left the air, sand, and water contaminated. So we better wear N-95 masks and filter our water and pick a better beach than Hermosa (Hyperion to a Satyr) or Dockweiler.
Some dolphins ("killer whales") eat sharks | Although the Demiurge (God) giveth terrible teeth
to fish, the Great Spirit provideth wings to terrestrial beasts, so learn to fly before swimming
Careful: Dolphins and sharks bite as they hunt | Men don't stand a chance against beautiful women
Third, how to build a clean and safe BBQ pit? We'll use real wood, burn it down to glowing embers without letting oil or juices drop into it, which creates smoke and flare ups that lead to acrylamides and other toxic formations (like soot and char) on food. Menu? Indigenous vegan dishes with Beyond Burgers (soy-free, gluten-free) and tangy BBQ sauce.
Ten Course Vegan Menu
HempFu (soy-free hemp seed tofu) sauteed with BBQ sauce
(The Happy Pear) July 2021: Elevate your plant-based cooking with this Recipe Club, only €2.99/month🌿 * 600+ delicious plant-based recipes * Fresh flavors: Weekly new recipes for never-ending inspiration. 📚 * Tailored: Save favorites. ✏️ * Cooking Made Easy: Step-by-step instructions for all skill levels. 👩🍳 * Connect and share: Join community and exchange tips. 💬 * Health-forward: Enjoy meals that nourish body and soul. 💚 Get ready to transform kitchen with us. 🎉 We are huge fans of eating our food outside. Even while traveling, we’d rather share fruit on the side of the street rather than sitting down inside. During the summer months we’re also HUGE fans of cooking outside. BBQing is a pleasure when the sun is shining and having people over. This recipe is quick and easy, and we can’t recommend it enough. All the best, Dave & Steve, #TheHappyPear
🍄Hillary's prime plants Super Mushroom veggie burgers
Lissie ("Pursuit of Happiness" Kid Cudi cover); Nudist DJ Chesney; Plant Chef Dick Sarno; Dave and Steve, The Happy Pear; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen, Seven, Crystal, Jaclyn, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly
Are Sydney Sweeney andWisdom Quarterly's numbers too big? Every time WQ reaches another million views, boobs. It's good for men's hearts, says science, but what about our lizard brains?
Her Instagram post comes after critics called her “not pretty.” [Do they say the same of Tate McRae, who is essentially her less well-endowed twin?]
Sydney Sweeney isn’t letting a little bit of controversy get her down. After headlines about her being “not pretty” and a bad actress made the rounds last week, she shrugged everything off and did what anyone would:
Cover up your man-boobs, Boobs!
She wore a slogan T-shirt that showed everyone that she’s staying above the fray.
Deep in a carousel of images shared over the weekend, Sweeney showed a snapshot of herself in an oversized gray sweatshirt that reads, “Sorry for having great t*ts.”
.
“Good times and tan lines,” she captioned the post.
Last week, producer Carol Baum, who worked on Father of the Bride and its sequel, said at an event that Sweeney is “not pretty” and “can’t act” — and that her hit rom-com Anyone But You was “unwatchable.”
Even with those comments, the film has earned $219 million at the box office worldwide.
According to the Daily Mail, Baum made her comments during a panel in Pleasantville, New York.
(Amy Sussman/GA/The Holly-
wood Reporter/Getty/InStyle)
“There’s an actress who everybody loves now: Sydney Sweeney. I don’t get Sydney Sweeney.
“I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney’s movie [Anyone But You] because I wanted to watch it,” she said.
“I wanted to know who she is and why everybody’s talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie — sorry to people who love this…romantic comedy where they hate each other.”
It's a "man's world," right? I'm just making the most of it. "Sex sells," but who's buying?
Cover your beauty, Syd! It's distracting our eyes!
“I said to my class, ‘Explain this girl to me. She’s not pretty. She can’t act. Why is she so hot?’ Nobody had an answer. But then the question was asked, ‘Well if you could get your movie made because she was in it, would you do it?’” Baum continued.
“That’s a very hard question to answer because we all want to get the movie made and who walks away from a green light? Nobody I know. Your job is to get the movie made.”
Sweeney clapped back, saying in a statement shared by Variety: “How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman.
If that’s what she’s learned in her decades in the industry and feels is appropriate to teach to her students, that’s shameful. To unjustly disparage a fellow female producer speaks volumes about Ms. Baum’s character.”
After Baum’s statement was shared, TMZ reported that she is “already expressing regret over the whole thing” and “wishes she never would’ve made her original comments.”
For more InStyle news, make sure to sign up for newsletter. Read the original article on InStyle.
COMMENTARY
It's very interesting. Fran and I were on retreat with an enlightened Buddhist nun.
(Yes, such people exist even if no one realizes it or can bring themselves to accept that such a thing could be possible in this decadent age, the Kali Yuga. But it was decadent and overcome with lust when the Buddha awakened and attempted to teach humans and devas the way to the end of all suffering. He assumed it would be hopeless because living beings in those days were so obsessed with sex and sensuality. This is, after all, the Sensual Sphere or Kama Loka we're living in).
There was calm and bliss (piti).
She asked a very straightforward question during a Dharma talk after a long day of meditating: "Where does clinging [lust] come from, outside or inside?"
"Like rain, does it (lusting for or clinging to the delights of the senses)," I asked myself, "creep in the poorly thatched roof of the physical senses and mind (the sixth sense)? Or does it arise from within (from some innate badness) like bubbling, oozing, staining crude oil?"
We were all stumped. We had all seen beautiful things. We had all, for having seen them, experienced lust, distraction, craving, preoccupation, obsession, thirst (tanha), desire, yearning, pining, and languishing, sick when we didn't get what we wanted, thrilled-then-disappointed when we did get it.
We were all hesitant. We all wanted to be good students, wanted to be right. We did not want to disappoint her as Americans. So we were waiting for her to drop a hint. Finally, someone dared to say that clinging (like lust) had to be coming from the outside.
Why? We were all peaceful and fine until someone dared to walk around provocatively dressed, thereby ruining our calm (samatha), stillness (samadhi), onepointedness (ekagatta), mindfulness (sati), and renunciation (nekkhamma).
Is this explained anywhere? (Abhidhamma)
Just as we were starting to let go and be free of the outside world's pull on us, some clinging or lust (for food, sex, a massage, a blissful experience) got the better of us and ruined the meditation. Clinging held us like six bondage straps, making us involuntary servants to this coarse, crass, and crappy body.
We were here for the bliss and rapture of meditative absorption, the calm and cool of mindful awareness, the insight and liberating-wisdom of spiritual knowing-and-seeing. The body and all its wants stood in our way, we thought.
Seeing a lovely, hot, shiny body, a little too much skin, one button too many undone, whew, it could be days before the mind simmered down again.
Clinging (repeated craving and grasping) had to be coming from the outside! We were fine until the outside world -- the boobs of a beauty or glistening muscles of a rugged and handsome person -- ruined us. It wasn't our fault! We were mere babes in Toyland!
The skull is like a thatched roof. And we are safe inside our guarded skull, until that darn rain seeps in from the evil (lusty, sexy, and provocative) world outside.
I can't help it if people stare at me.
"Is a fully enlightened person still overcome by lust [greed, craving, grasping], aversion [anger, fear, hate], and delusion [wrong views, distortions, ignorance about ultimate matters]?" she asked in answer to our suggestion that clinging had to originate outside ourselves.
"Well, no," we answered. If such liberated folks were still obsessed with greed, hatred, or confusion just because they saw sights, heard sounds, smelled scents, tasted savors, and felt sensations (to say nothing of mental past memories and future projections of these), what hope would there be for any of us in our practice?
Turning away, averting one's gaze, restraining the senses is just the first step. It might be difficult, but that's not all there is. Buddhism is NOT about severe austerities, penance, pious acts of self-mortification. It is about withdrawing into mental seclusion, calming the mind, exercising mindfulness, then cultivating insight that breaks through the illusion.
One develops the ability to see through the unreal, the superficial, the misleading. If this body were beautiful, why then we should celebrate it. If this body were the way to happiness, why then we should all become hedonists and have at it. If licentiousness and easy virtue were the way to liberation, why then we should condemn anyone who stood in our way and was being a stick in the mud at the party!
It is exactly because beautiful things in the world are constituent in nature not compact, ephemeral not permanent, disappointing not satisfying that they are not at all what they seem.
They are superficial illusions, they are disappointing, they are painful and struggling to get them is painful, and not getting them when one craves them is painful, and finally getting them is ultimately disappointing and not fulfilling. And we have been treading this hamster wheel for aeons beyond measures, past lives beyond comprehension, and most of us can see no end in sight.
So if there were a way to see things as they truly are, what would happen? We would become dispassionate, disillusioned, and detached. The mind that clings would let go.
Clinging and reacting to things in the world with lust, annoyance, or confusion comes not from them but from us. And when a person becomes enlightened, one has seen through the charade. One has seen things as they really are. For example, let's get gross.
I thought you liked my poop. You bag it.
Let's say we had a naked inflatable doll, beautiful, exquisite, the perfection of proportion, complexion, and symmetry, comely, alluring, and more real than real. But inside it was full of poop and worms and a stench so foul as to make us heave involuntarily. If a little leaked, or we opened its mouth or other openings and experienced the ugly inside behind the beautiful superficial outside, how might we feel?
We might feel tricked, deceived, upset to have been taken in by a shiny exterior. Or imagine a pretty pink bag, smooth and reflective, potentially useful to carry things like our lunch or precious possessions, only to find out that bag contained dog feces. Yikes! Suddenly we turn away, clutch our stomachs, berate ourselves for almost touching it.
What's inside this body? Or that pretty body covering Sydney Sweeney? (Well, I'd rather not think about that! Of course not. That would ruin all the fun of the illusion. Flowers are pretty and alluring, but they're steeped in fertilizer, worms, fungus, dead bodies, microbes, pathogens, pale threads taking in nutrients. Most of us instinctively avoid the muck or are stained, tainted, and stink.
Conclusion
People can be free. Practice.
If beautiful objects had the intrinsic ability to grab, take hold of us, make us obsessed, we would have little to no hope of escape.
But because lust (craving) and clinging arise not due to beauty, but due to the interaction of beautiful stimuli impinging on the senses (contacting consciousness) and our response to it, which is rooted in delusion, we can escape.
That delusion, very broadly stated, is a failure to see pretty phenomena as transient (radically impermanent), incapable of satisfying or fulfilling us, and it not being real (not a self, not what it seems.
When we see things, even the most beautiful things, as they really are (impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal), then the heart/mind lets go. There is no effort to reject beautiful things, only to see them as they really are. The effort is to see clearly (vipassana).
Whether things are ugly or dull, the same is true of stimuli that provoke aversion (fear or anger) or delusion (wrong view or ignorance). "Boring" things (that provoke inattention because they neither give rise to lust or anger) are neutral and peaceful, but craving makes them dull and something to get away from as we go in search of delight.
So by calm-and-insight we can be free here and now, even if beautiful creatures parade in front of us with next to nothing on and even if Hollywood feeds us airbrushed images and AI beauty pageant winners.
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