Methods for Not Being Attached to Pleasant Feeling (Part Three)

3.Offering Pleasant Feeling with Bodhicitta

Up to this point, we already have methods to deal with suffering arising from the body (rūpa), and we have also discussed what to do when pleasant feeling arises. In order to prevent it from turning directly from pleasure into suffering, we must counteract the attachment (rāga) that arises along with it.

There are several methods: those based on emptiness (śūnyatā), on single emptiness, on conceptual contemplation of single emptiness, and another method—using bodhicitta to transform it into an opportunity for accumulating merit (puṇya). Whenever any pleasant feeling arises, immediately offer it to the Three Jewels (Triratna) or dedicate it to all sentient beings.

You may ask, “A pleasant feeling isn’t something tangible—how can it be offered to the Three Jewels?” In fact, all you need to do is to make this intention in the mind. Don’t, as the song says, “secretly enjoy it all by your self.” When happiness arises—for example, when someone gives me a cup of yogurt—I should think to myself: “This yogurt is delicious; I offer the pleasant feeling that comes from enjoying it to the Three Jewels.”

Whatever you are doing, offer the pleasant feeling to the Three Jewels, or wish to share that happiness with all sentient beings. In this way, you consciously transform it into an opportunity to accumulate merit and generate bodhicitta. Then you are no longer merely enjoying that pleasant feeling in vain.

We often hear people say that practice should be integrated into daily life—but how exactly? It means that as the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) continuously give rise to various phenomena, you turn each of them into practice. As mentioned earlier, both bodily suffering and arising pleasant feelings can be turned into the practice. We must counteract our attachment to pleasant feeling so that it does not turn into affliction (kleśa).

——Excerpted and adapted from The Arising and Remedy of Afflictions

This article is a preliminary translation draft and has not yet been reviewed or proofread by the speaker.