When we don't get what we expect

No! We don't want to ever suffer! - Calm down, crybabies. Here's the solution: NIRVANA.

(Buddhism Podcast) Live with what we can't change? No, there's much to do beyond that

Accept what we cannot change? No

Why do we fall into the trap of our expectations? The Truth is much better.

Cry, Homer. But it's okay. It'll all be alright.

(Buddhism Podcast) When life, which is full of disappointment (dukkha), is not what we expected.

There are Four Ennobling Truths, four realizations that lead to enlightenment here and now and awakening in this very life, with spiritual liberation and freedom for all time. What are they?

1. This is disappointing, incapable of ever fulfilling us.
2. This is how pain/disappointment/suffering originates.
3. This is the cessation of all suffering (nirvana).
4. This is the Path to the cessation of all suffering.

• Craving, grasping, lust, longing, "thirst": taṇhā
• The Three Marks (Characteristics) of Existence
• Things keep changing, hurtling towards destruction
• The Eight Worldly Conditions: praise and blame...

Wait, remind me. What is "suffering"?

Many people misunderstand Buddhism because the word "suffering" comes up so much that it seems that's all there is -- depressing talk about pain. This is very misleading. Buddhism is ALL about bringing about the END of all suffering.

I'm not like this. I'm just having a bad day, k?

That is nirvana, attainable here and now, no having to wait till death, which is actually a lot late to be starting to do anything about all the suffering that awaits us for remaining ignorant and asleep. So since we don't suffer, we dismiss anything they Buddha said, thinking it doesn't apply to us. But do we suffer? Well, that depends on, What is "suffering"? The Buddha defines what he is calling suffering (dukkha):

Various sutras sum up what unpleasant things and experiences in countless rebirths we undergo. It is not just the pain that touches us in this life; the process rolls on and on in the "continued wandering on" of saṃsāra.

Oh, the Buddha found the end to all pain?

This process itself (the Five Aggregates clung to as self) is suffering, is unsatisfactory, is disappointing, is liable to great pain, is utterly incapable of ever fulfilling us. Rebirth is suffering (unsatisfactory, disappointing, painful, unfulfilling) as are growth (maturation), aging (slowly breaking down), illness, death, loss, sorrow, crying (lamentation), physical pains, grief, and despair.

Contact with unpleasant (hateful, unloved, unwanted, repulsive) things suffering, as are being separated from the pleasant (wished for, loved, wanted, attractive). Not getting what we want, getting what we don't want, never being satisfied with anything we get, always longing and craving for more...all of it is unsatisfactory, disappointing, painful, suffering.

Things we can control

US killer survives torture with slave philosophy

Stoic philosopher/pilot James Bond Stockdale

And it all comes back to a more fundamental disappointment beneath it all -- the Five Aggregates clung to as self: body (form); feelings (sensations), perceptions, formations, and consciousness clung to as "self."

Emphasis in Buddhism is NOT on belief. That's nearly useless and only preliminary. The emphasis is gnostic like the ancient Gnostics, for whom direct personal experience of the Truth is everything. Part of that is cultivating insight (vipassana, lit. "clear seeing") into the nature of this "suffering" along with the other two marks of existence.

List: Seven Stages of Insight

The process of craving, grasping, and clinging starts with sense-contact, part of the Five Aggregates clung to as self, and how this corruption, this misapprehension, this forming of wrong view, this distorted seeing can be overcome by progressive training of the heart/mind, culminating in progressive insight, which can be remembered as the Seven Stages of Insight.

This begins by moral restraint (virtuous conduct, sila), which makes meditation (the absorptions, jhanas) possible, which makes mindfulness into the four foundations (body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects) possible.

This brings us back to the basics, the foundational summary, of what we need to penetrate -- not memorize, recite, "believe," argue about), the Teaching of the Four Ennobling Truths. What's "noble" about them or about suffering? They are not noble in the English sense of the word. The Buddhist sense of noble is arya or Aryan, which means "enlightened" or "enlightening."

The list is not a formula but a very general outline of the reflections that bring about what the historical Buddha called "enlightenment" (bodhi, "awakening"). We would rather stay asleep and perchance dream a pleasant fantasy full of pleasure and sensual experiences, delights, happiness in all its forms, of which there are many.

But this dreaming is very prone to nightmares, for in pursuit of pleasure, we ill-conduct ourselves and those karmic deeds come to fruition and ripen in great suffering, unimaginable suffering. We already taste that now, when we would dream and be full of pleasure and happiness all the time or, at least, at will. But that doesn't happen. We can't make that happen. We think we can so, like a donkey after that carrot, which is just right there in front of us, we keep going, pulling a heavy load of a cart laden with more and more karma (all our actions).

Buddhist sutras, or discourses, show the broad meaning of "suffering," from the slightest agitation to the greatest agony, coming in three categories:

• dukkha-dukkha, aversion to physical pain – which includes physical and mental suffering, such as rebirth, aging, illness, dying, distress due to the undesirable.
• viparinama-dukkha, the frustration of disappearing happiness – which is the suffering of pleasurable, pleasant, and happy experiences changing to painful, unpleasant, and miserable ones when the causes and conditions that produced the pleasurable are exhausted or lost.
• sankhara-dukkha, the disappointment and unsatisfactoriness of transient, changing, impermanent "things" – the inability of [conditioned] things to give us constant, lasting pleasure and happiness.

So there is an END to all this suffering, now?

This includes a fundamental, inescapable unsatisfactoriness that pervades all things in and states of existence, all situations and future lives in any world (of which there are countless), any plane (of which there are 31), and any sphere (of which there are three), because all things all the time are incapable of fulfilling us and are always changing, hurtling towards destruction, and are ultimately impersonal, not ours, not under our absolute control.

At this level, the term dukkha, "suffering," indicates a lack of any lasting satisfaction, any ultimate fulfillment, any that things can ever measure up to our expectations. More

What is the point of all this talking about or even mentioning "suffering"? Yeah, yeah, we get it; we know we suffer, duh! Can't we just talk about nice things -- bliss, lights, expanded meditative states, magical powers, insights into all physical and mental phenomena, joy unending, nirvana-fication, quenching thirst, dousing the flames of greed, hatred, and smoldering delusion, stuff like that? Suffering is the problem that pleads for a final solution, a state and trait, a condition in need of a cure, an unbearable thing that we at some point have to deal with and bring to a final end.

Four truths to freedom

There's much to do to be free.

The first ennobling truth is the recognition that there is suffering, not because there is but because we don't even recognize it. We think we do. As soon as it pops up, we turn away, move on to something else, jump for distractions. We have next to no idea what it really is or what is causing it.

That is the second ennobling truth: What is causing it? The ROOT cause, the fundamental cause, the ultimate cause is? It is not craving (desire, wanting). It is ignorance (avijja), manifesting as wrong views (miccha-ditthi) and delusion (moha), confusion about reality.

The solution is? Awakening to the Truth, the ultimate truth (paramattha), enlightenment right now -- through realizing the causal links of Dependent Origination, the process by which this suffering is arising. Among those 12 links, of which ignorance is the ultimate cause, is one the Buddha singled as the one we can actually do something about right here and right now directly, and that is craving (tanha). Why do we crave? Ignorance, which is the same reason we have aversion and why we are deluded. The Buddha singles out craving to work on undoing the causes and conditions bringing about suffering. Why?

That is the third ennobling truth: What is not-suffering? Nirvana. Nirvana is the end of all suffering. How do we realize nirvana, directly perceive and experience it here and now?

That is the fourth ennobling truth: There is a Path to the end of suffering. What is it? It is outlined in general in the Ennobling Eightfold Path. However, to be more specific and less general, the Buddha spoke of 37 "things pertaining to enlightenment," the bodhipakkhiya-dhamma, for immediate development to know-and-see nirvana.

• Buddhism Podcast (videos); Dhr. Seven (text), Ashley Wells (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Free movie: 'The Gods Must Be Crazy'

What have the gods wrought?

The Gods Must Be Crazy is a comedy film written, produced, edited, and directed by Jamie Uys. An international co-production of South Africa and Botswana, it is the first film in the popular The Gods Must Be Crazy series.

Set in Southern Africa, the film stars Namibian San farmer Nǃxau ǂToma as Xi, a hunter-gatherer of the Kalahari Desert whose tribe discovers a glass Coca-Cola bottle dropped from an airplane.

The Gods Must Be Crazy

They believe it to be a gift from their gods. When Xi sets out to return the bottle to the sky gods, his journey becomes intertwined with that of a biologist (Marius Weyers), a newly hired village schoolteacher (Sandra Prinsloo), and a band of guerrilla terrorists.

The Gods Must Be Crazy was released in South Africa in 1980 by Ster-Kinekor and broke several box office records in the country due to its immediate popularity, becoming the most financially successful South African film ever produced up to that time. More

• The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) with Paddy O'Byrne as narrator (IMDb)

Ajahn Chah - Struggles - Sexual Desire

(dhammatube) Feb. 12, 2008: Battles to overcome sexual desire. All videos of this series are available at: ajahnchah.org/videos.htm

How to stop sexual thoughts in the mind | Buddhist story on how to control lust

(Words of Wisdom) April 13, 2024: Buddha Life Stories. If we keep thinking about sex all the time then we can become victims of hypersexuality. Hypersexuality can make us addicted to pornography and masturbation. But if we want to overcome excess sexual thoughts in our mind then here is advice.

This Buddhist story of a Zen master and a young boy can teach us how to overcome sexual thoughts in the mind. These wise tips of the Buddha can help us rid our minds and bodies of sexual addiction and masturbation.

#sexuality #lust #overcomeaddiction #howtocontrolmind #desire #controlemotions #buddhastory Twitter: wordsofwisdom_5 WOW Instagram: wordsofwisdom.motivation. Personal Instagram: shaill03 Facebook: words-of-wisdom-quotes-stories-11062425731... Explore the podcast 86 episodes Buddha Life Stories Words of Wisdom

Why do humans keep dying? (Solution)

Why are you always smiling, Buddha?

"Why must we die?" This question is slightly misguided because "we" don't really die. The Complicated Game, the Samsaric Carousel goes on turning.

If we don't really die, what happens? The problem is in how we define "we." Who dies, what dies? This illusory sense of self separate from its causes and conditions that are the basis of the "self" (the Five Aggregates clung to as self).

How can we say they die if they go on beyond this life. (There is life after life, which is the whole problem, endless cycling through samsara. Why do we cycle? It is because we do not see Dependent Origination. If we do, when we, the problem resolves. In a sense, there never was a problem -- except that in a conventional sense, it was a giant problem. It's hard to give an example, parallel, or analogy, but it is possible that by giving one, a wise person may see the problem.)

First, can two seemingly contradictory things be true? Yes. Look: Is there absolute up and down? Yes, where gravity pulls hardest is "down," and where it doesn't is "up." And it matters. Keeping our orientation is important, even in a pool where the pull of gravity is lessened for our semi-floating bodies. But what about space (in the ether)?

I never asked to be born. - Did you want to stay
where you were? - No, that's not what I meant!

Suddenly, there is no absolute up or down; it doesn't matter. We just float and spin and can't right oursevles because there is no "right" only, maybe, a consensus agreement of this will be up and that will be down like when we're on earth. Now, here's the trick: Are they both true, or is only one true, or are neither true? We see that on earth, it's true. We see that deep in space, it's not true (there is no absolute up or down). How can they both be true, given that they're opposites? Here's the kicker: Where's earth? Earth is in space. So, in a sense, in space it is both true and not true that there is an absolute up and down.

• (The resolution is that it depends, as with most things in life). In the micro it matter, in the macro it doesn't, but they're not separate).

There are two dimensions within one reality (one with up and down, one without them) both at the same time. What we wear matters to others because of looks, except in the dark.

So imagine yourself in prison. It sucks. You don't want to be there. But further imagine that all the time you've been inside, the door to the outside has be "open" in the sense that it hasn't been locked. No one inside knows it's unlocked, so are you locked up or not?

Devas learned more than humans did.

Literally, technically, no. But conventionally, in every important sense, yes. You both are and are not at the same time. There's no confusion. You could explain and explain, but we on the outside already understand. We, unlike you all inside, can see that it's unlocked, so we don't understand the problem. But there is a problem, a big problem, and that is that you don't know. You live in an illusion, and because of it you never even test the door. You dream of getting out, but the easiest exit goes untested. (This is just an example. But isn't life this way?) There is an escape, there is a way out, there is a solution, but we on the inside don't know it.

And if someone who slipped out comes back in to tell us, "Hey, you'll never guess, there's a way out. Follow me, and I'll show you." Will people follow? No way. Only very few with faith in that person would even dream of suspending disbelief and investigating. It is exactly like The Allegory of the Cave by Plato.

It is exactly like the predicament of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni (a Scythian prince who let go, found a way out, came back to save everyone with that wisdom, and found out that "no good deed goes unpunished").

So here we at Wisdom Quarterly are doing the same thing, suffering the same punishment, wondering why we don't shut and just go find that door.

See, as in The Cave, so in the Illusory Prison of Life, there are pleasures here, safety in the familiar, a lack of recognition of what bad is coming our way -- old age, sickness, disappointments of all kinds, death, loss, separation, misery, and big troubles -- all that is going to happen if we stay here.

In The Cave, the beings cling to their chains and aren't going to have some "madman" unchain them and lead them out of the only world and safety and familiarity they've ever known. Though the Buddha comes by banging a pot in the street, announcing that there is a way out of this Illusory Prison of Life, do humans and devas run to him in joy? Or do they hide under their covers or beds, fearing that he is threatening to take away their good times, their petty pleasures and joys to exchange them for hardships and austerities?

Many completely misunderstand that he is offering slightly bitter medicine and stay suckling at the teat of sugary white goo, growing fat and further addicted.

So who will die, what will die?

It's all right to let go now.

We could say that the Five Aggregates clung to as self (form, feelings, perceptions, mental formation, and consciousness) will disintegrate and fall apart. But this can't be death because (a) they reform and (b) they are dying at every moment.

They are not "things" in the sense of compacts, but are "processes" in the sense of being nothing more than constituent parts. It's like thinking that a segment of hose water is ours.

• (Imagine an 11-foot green hose with a one-foot segment in the middle that is clear, and saying that clear portion we can see through, that water is ours. Is it? Sure, let's say we've been deeded it and have enforceable water rights with written documentation that it "belongs" to us. We own no other water, but that water is ours. What is ours? It's never ours really, except in the way an NFT belongs to someone: in name only. If we insist, like that NFT owner, that it is ours, okay, what is ours? That water we "own" is always moving. Do we own the H20 molecules? If so, which ones? The ones now, the ones now, the ones later, the ones that already passed? We don't control the spigot or anything else, but cling to the ones we can see passing right now as "ours.")

What is the water passing in this example? If we wanted to get symbolic, we could say it represents the moisture passing through this body we cling to. Do we cling to the urine the body makes and refuse to relinquish it? No, we understand it's a process and more water is coming. Do we cling to the remainder (poop) of the food we ate? No, not most of us. We gladly relinquish it and get as far away from it as possible.

As for all that is watery, what do we do? Thirst (tanha, the Buddha called it by analogy).

But before it prepares to pass, we cling to it, love it, fear losing "self" (in the sense of the first aggregate, form).

The Buddha has been trying to tell the world of humans and devas this since the first sermon, the Dhammacakkapavatana Sutta. Quick witted Anna Kondanna got it. We have been much slower.

All that is (re)born is born to die

(Lana Del Rey) "Born to Die" - "Not having been, they come to be; once having been, they cease." What all? The Five Aggregates clung to as self.

ANSWER

So in answer to the question, "Why must we die?" (or "Why do humans keep dying?") It is because what we call "we" (we humans and other kinds of beings like angelic devas) are actually compounds of constituent parts called khandha, the Five Aggregates clung to as self. This self is a composite, and each element, each component is ultimately impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal. It true nature, which is not apparent to us in normal mundane consciousness (but can be brought into consciousness by heightening our attention and purifying mind/heart of distractions, hindrances, and obstructions to vision). When we know and see its true nature, we see that things are not at all like they seem. What appears solid, stable, alluring and able to satisfy desires, and personal is actually many streams of form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousnesses (all processes, not things). We keep dying from moment to moment, every moment, because like moving water, there is nothing stable or permanent about this process of changing elements, guided along by our karma (deeds) and their many faceted results. Knowing and seeing this firsthand, the heart turns away and we can easily let go of clinging. By letting go, no longer seeing any appeal in this dangerous game of clinging to the painful, the mind is freed. We awaken to the first stage of enlightenment called stream entry. (But it's of no use trying to tell this to anyone because the ego will not stand for it, will not listen, will not be convinced, will not accept. It is only by practice that knowledge and vision arise. Then knowing and seeing, there is no doubt, and letting go is as easy as falling down. Look, the prison is open. Look, all the forms, feelings...and all things clung to are not "self." Let go of what is not me or mine. Be set free.

• Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

Israeli war crimes: communicable diseases

Don't worry, Bibi, I got your back, and so does Kamala. Either way, Zionism is covered.

"Beyond Catastrophic": U.N. issues dire warning on Gaza as Israel hinders polio vaccination drive 

(Democracy Now!) Sept. 6, 2024: The United Nations is warning the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains "beyond catastrophic" as more than 1 million Palestinians in Gaza did not receive any food rations in August amid Israel's relentless assault. Israel's 11-month campaign has killed more than 15,000 children and enabled the besieged territory's first polio outbreak in a quarter-century. INARA founder Arwa Damon just got back from spending two weeks in Gaza, where the nonprofit currently provides medical and mental healthcare to Palestinian children. "Israel has decimated every single aspect of any sort of infrastructure within the Gaza Strip, from sewage to water to electricity to you name it," says Damon, who reports that humanitarian assistance has diminished significantly while displaced Palestinians play a "macabre, dark, twisted game" of trying to escape constant Israeli bombing.

• Jewish Voice for Peace
• NOT IN OUR NAME: ifnotnowmovement.org
• Code Pink: Women for Peace
• American Veterans for Peace
• Orthodox Jews Against Israel
• IDF Veterans for Truth: breakingthesilence.org.il
• ‎شرش | Shoresh | שר”ש‎ (@shoresh_us) • Anti-Zionist Jews

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET. Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe. Latest Shows. Donate

• Amy Goodman, DemocracyNow.org; Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Is it good to have a great meditation?

Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

It was so unexpected. I didn't do anything.

Is it good to have a great meditation? No, it is great to have one.

A good session makes it all worthwhile as things are not only progressing, but they seem like they're progressing, too. Progress may always be being made, but it sure doesn't feel like it.

O, I see, attention: Just breathe while noticing.

Of course, there is potentially one bad thing about it, and it's not to do with the meditation itself.

If meditation is about letting go, completely letting go, let it be. But we know we have neither let go nor let it be if we ATTACH (cling) to the pleasant experience of:

• bliss (piti and sukha),
• light (aloka),
• sense of progress,
• calm (samatha),
• connection,
• effortlessness,
• freedom (vimutti),
• contentment (santutthitā),
• oneness/nonduality (advaita),
• unbroken mindfulness (sati), or
• stillness (samadhi).

Relax. Let go. We have been swimming upstream for a long time. "Abraham" (through channel Esther Hicks) assures us that everything we want is downstream. Let go. Go with the flow, which will go the way of the Tao (Taoist word for the Way, the path of least resistance).

So a great meditation can't be bad. But craving (tanha), grasping and clinging (upadana) can't be good; it will lead to tremendous suffering. And by setting up expectations about what it "should" be is likely to derail our practice altogether. If we have gotten up and are no longer returning to the mat, to the practice, that is defeat. Why have we stopped. Experience was not meeting our expectations.

Drop, abandon, release expectations and just be. Sit. Breathe. Let go. Let it be.

Just when we thought we were saying something new, suddenly we remember the startling advice of Western Buddhist monk Ajahn Sumedho (formerly Robert Karr Jackman). Craving is unskillful (leads to suffering).

Let go of what? Three things

Zen Master Doggone thinks he's
going to muscle it to enlightenment.

But people neglect to realize there are THREE KINDS OF CRAVING.

• First, there's commonplace sensual craving (five sense strand pleasure).
• Second, there's the desire to become something (arhat, saint, enlightened, free, mindful, knowledgeable, a seer, etc.)
• Third, there's the craving to get rid of something (suffering, sadness, absentmindedness, craving, ignorance, spiritual blindness, bad habits, etc.) It's all a manifestation of misery-making greed (lobha), cupidity, affection, subtle clinging.

To "let go" is to let it be. Whatever it is, we just observe it dispassionately. There's little sense in establishing a goal, objective, marker. Doing so only sets us up for frustration. The way there is to let go. It does not come from wanting and squirming.

Sarah 'Zionist' Silverman stoned: Kill Gazans 😢

Sheldon S., Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

But I was stoned when I was talking! I still want to be America's favorite commedienne!

Anti Palestine TikTok

(Noah Samsen) Nov. 21, 2023: This video examines a handful of short-form content pieces from supporters of Israel and connects this content to broader Zionist-Jewish (pro-Israel) attitudes.

This video is not easy to watch, but it is hoped that it gives some context on what Israel is doing and good YouTube channels to follow.

• @DemocracyNow
• @HasanAbi
• @aljazeeraenglish
• Full resource document: docs.google.com/document...
• @JohntheDuncan video: • Genocide
• New outro song by the bestie @roramdin
• Noah Samsen LINKS
• second channel: @noahsamsen2
• Patreon: samsen
• Instagram: noahsamsen
• Outro song: Pilotwings Flight Club music drum n bass

How US censors pro-Palestine, pro-peace voices

The Chris Hedges Report, Premiered Nov. 24, 2023

Zionist anti-Palestine censorship is surging w/Dylan Saba | The Chris Hedges Report

(The Real News Network) The Chris Hedges Report. Dylan Saba, a lawyer for Palestine Legal, was asked to write a piece on the silencing of pro-Palestine voices by The Guardian — only to then be informed at the last minute that his piece had been killed and would not be published. Saba joins countless pro-Palestine activists and voices who have been targeted with termination, doxing, harassment, censorship, and even death threats. Saba joins The Chris Hedges Report to discuss the intensifying war on civil liberties unfolding as public revulsion at Israel's crimes in Gaza grows.

• Article by Dylan Saba: "A Surge in Suppression" (nplusonemag.com)

Studio Production: David Hebden, Adam Coley, Cameron Granadino Post-Production: Adam Coley

Pleasure, end laziness, dopamine detox (video)

Dr. Andy Huberman, Tom Bilyeu, 9/23/21; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Dopamine detox: Take back control of life and stop laziness! | Dr. Andrew Huberman

(Tom Bilyeu) As for dopamine, people have been obsessing and hearing about this neurochemical and its role in human behavior for years. We may think of it as the "feel-good happy hormone," or we may associate it with addiction, love, lust, and sex.

The Practical Neuroscience of Buddha's Brain

As our lives convert over to a totally digital experience that is with us everywhere we are in the form of a cell phone, dopamine detox has even started gaining in popularity.

Dr. Andrew Huberman from the Huberman Lab is here again to unpack some of the more surprising discoveries and uses of dopamine. He compares dopamine to a biological "currency" that plays a role in human desire for more and more (Buddhist craving and clinging, not being able to let go even in the face of suffering/disappointment).

Dopamine is the catalyst pushing humanity forward exploring things like cryptocurrency and pushing our limitations and what is possible, but is all of that for the sake of pleasure and feeling good?

Dr. Huberman breaks down the balance of pain and pleasure, arousal and relaxation, and gives us the insight we need to start regulating our body’s dopamine release.

If we thought dopamine was all about feeling good, Dr. Huberman is about to reveal why it’s more about what motivates us in the pursuit of something greater.

• Brain activity and [blissful] meditation
• Neuroplasticity [bending the brain]
• Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (Dr. Rick Hanson and Richard Mendius)

Show notes

• 0:00 | Introduction Dr. Andrew Huberman
• 0:56 | Dopamine as biological currency
• 6:51 | Releasing dopamine
• 10:38 | Hormonal signaling
• 14:34 | Can we spike dopamine?
• 21:00 | Value the pursuit and the dips
• 25:40 | Balance of pain and pleasure
• 31:23 | Self-regulation of dopamine
• 38:28 | Dopamine and time perception
• 44:31 | Dopamine and overindulging
• 49:05 | Action based denial
• 52:42 | Using rules and dopamine
• 58:27 | Ways to get motivated

"I was gonna...but then I got high."

(Afroman song "Because I Got High")

Quotes

Is weed the solution? How marijuana affects brain and body (Dr. Andrew Huberman)

.

“When I say dopamine is the universal currency of everything, what I mean is, it's driving the motivation to develop new currencies.” [3:08]

“Celebrating the win more than the pursuit, it actually sets you up for failure in the future.” [16:00]

“If you can start to register that craving, and that friction and that desire, that almost kind of low level of agitation, sometimes high level of agitation...that's dopamine” [17:54].

“Your capacity to tap into dopamine as a motivator, not just seeking dopamine rewards, that is infinite.” [19:34]

“It's the craving that makes me feel alive. So it's the state of wanting that is in and of itself, the pleasurable act.” [22:37]

“It doesn't matter if it's Bitcoin or Ethereum, it doesn't matter if it's putting rockets on other planets, it doesn't matter if it's building the first automobile, it's the same currency.” [25:27]

And so we go back to this example of the person who's not motivated and can't get off the couch and doesn't want to do anything. Well, this is the problem. Remember the rat experiment? They are effectively the rat with no dopamine..." [27:47]

“Dopamine itself is not the reward. It's the buildup to the reward, and the reward has more of a kind of opioid bliss like property.” [29:51]

“The more pain you experience, the more dopamine you can achieve. If you get back on the avenue of pursuit.” [30:58]

“I would say addiction is a progressive narrowing of the things that bring you pleasure, and I don't like to comment too much on enlightenment...but a good life is a progressive expansion of the things that bring you pleasure, and even better is a good life is a progressive expansion of the things that bring you pleasure and includes pleasure through motivation and hard work.” [32:55]

“If you think about most of the growth in life comes from these rigidly externally imposed schedules and we hate them. But they are where we learn restraint.” [52:42]

Follow Dr. Huberman

• Website: hubermanlab.com
• YouTube: youtube.com/andrewhuberma...
• Twitter: twitter.com/hubermanlab
• Instagram: instagram.com/hubermanlab
• Facebook: facebook.com/hubermanlab
• Podcast: hubermanlab.com

Join Tom Bilyeu's Discord community to catch all the amazing things being worked on (impacttheory.com/discord). Get direct access to Tom and the team PLUS exclusive content, offers, and much more. Jump on in and get started on becoming legendary.

Karma: How to become a Hungry Ghost

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit preta

Wait, rebirth is real? Those monsters, those feeders, are depending on me to feed them?!

Gaki zōshi 餓鬼草紙 "Scroll of Hungry Ghosts": a Gaki condemned to eating feces, c. 12th cent.

.

I'm not a ghost yet. I'm getting there. Gimme!

There are 31 Planes of Existence (and countless individual worlds) one might be reborn in, in accordance with one's deeds as their resultants come up at the time of dying.

One of the "unfortunate destinations" (niraya, the downfall or downward path) is the Realm of Hungry Ghosts.

Not all ghosts are hungry and suffering in the same way, as they are very diverse in accordance with their deeds, but deprivation is common on this plane.

Pretas (Sanskrit प्रेत, Pali peta, Tibetan ཡི་དྭགས་ yi dags, Japanese gaki, Thai pret) are also known as "hungry ghosts," the Sanskrit name for a type of being described in Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religion.

Beings reborn among them undergo suffering generally greater than that of humans, particularly an extreme level of hunger and thirst [1].

What must it be like in the Land of the Dead?

With origins in India's Dharmic religions, they have been adopted into East Asian religions via the spread of Buddhism.

Preta is often translated into English as "hungry ghost" from Chinese and East Asian adaptations. In early Buddhist sources, such as the Book of Ghost Stories or Petavatthu, they are much more varied.

Descriptions here apply mainly in this narrower context of those deprived of food, drink, shelter, and possessions clung to from their time on the human plane.

The development of the concept of the preta started with just thinking that it was the ghost and gandhabba (or intermediate conscious continuation of a person) once that person died on one plane.

But later the concept developed into a transient state between death and obtaining another rebirth in accordance with that person's deeds/karma [2]. We make our own fate.

In order to successfully pass through this phase of the cycle of karmic rebirth (samsara), the deceased's family are thought to have to engage in a variety of rituals and offerings to properly guide the suffering spirit into its next life [2].

If family or friends do not engage in these funerary rites, which last for one year, the person (spirit) could remain suffering as a preta for an indeterminate period of time that may seem like an eternity [2].

Karma (deeds)

I now love filth. I love smearing it on my face.

A preta was a false, corrupt, compulsive, deceitful, jealous, or greedy person in some previous life. [This may not be the immediately previous life but any life in the past from innumerable lives already lived.]

As a result of that person's deeds (that store of karma), one is afflicted with an insatiable hunger for some particular substance or object.

Traditionally, this is something repugnant or humiliating, such as feces or cadavers, though in more recent stories, it can be anything, however bizarre [3].

In addition to having insatiable hunger for an aversive item, pretas are said to have disturbing visions [4].

Pretas and human beings (and also animals) occupy the same physical space. But while humans looking at a river would see clear water, pretas see the same river flowing with a repugnant substance. Common examples of such visions include pus and filth [4]. More

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