Greeting, appreciate your dhamma teaching very much. You make sutta reading enjoyable and help us understand it better. I have a question. I found that the explanation of independent or unconditional pleasure can increase wholesome states and reduce unwholesome states whereas dependent or conditional pleasure can increase unwholesome states and decrease wholesome states confusing. The way I understand it is that pleasures (and pains) belong to the feeling group (vedena), which is a universal mental factor. If it is associated with unwholesome mind (greed, hatred, etc.), then it is unwholesome state of mind and vice versa. We learned that all worldly phenomena are conditional, and the only unconditional one is nibbana. It's not incorrect to say that unconditional feeling (pleasure, pain, neither) is wholesome (due to association with nibbana). But there are conditional feelings associated with wholesome mind, such as pleasure derived from jhana , which may not be in nibbana but is wholesome, nevertheless. It's just my humble opinion and please correct me if I am wrong. Best regards!
Yes. I agree that my use of 'independent' or 'unconditional' in regards to pleasure in this talk was a little confusing. And I agree that jhana produces conditional/dependent pleasure that increases wholesome states. Thank you for the more accurate presentation of the ideas.
Greeting, appreciate your dhamma teaching very much. You make sutta reading enjoyable and help us understand it better.
I have a question. I found that the explanation of independent or unconditional pleasure can increase wholesome states and reduce unwholesome states whereas dependent or conditional pleasure can increase unwholesome states and decrease wholesome states confusing. The way I understand it is that pleasures (and pains) belong to the feeling group (vedena), which is a universal mental factor. If it is associated with unwholesome mind (greed, hatred, etc.), then it is unwholesome state of mind and vice versa. We learned that all worldly phenomena are conditional, and the only unconditional one is nibbana. It's not incorrect to say that unconditional feeling (pleasure, pain, neither) is wholesome (due to association with nibbana). But there are conditional feelings associated with wholesome mind, such as pleasure derived from jhana , which may not be in nibbana but is wholesome, nevertheless. It's just my humble opinion and please correct me if I am wrong. Best regards!
Yes. I agree that my use of 'independent' or 'unconditional' in regards to pleasure in this talk was a little confusing. And I agree that jhana produces conditional/dependent pleasure that increases wholesome states. Thank you for the more accurate presentation of the ideas.