Illusory Pleasant Feelings and Endless Suffering

When the manas takes the five-aggregate body as the self, in the matter of food and drink, in order to maintain the physical body, it prompts the mind consciousness and eye consciousness to be picky about the appearance, taste, and nutrition of food, and prompts the tongue consciousness and mind consciousness to crave delicious flavors and nutrition, taking the taste objects as truly real, taking the sense of taste as truly real, taking the spleen and stomach as truly real—and thus craves food and drink.

In fact, delicious flavors arise and cease, change and perish moment by moment, and do not last long; the sense of taste likewise arises and ceases, changes and perishes moment by moment, and does not last long. After the sense of taste disappears, nothing is gained; even while the sense of taste exists, nothing is gained. After the delicious food enters the esophagus, nothing is gained; even while the delicious food exists, nothing is gained. After digestion, nothing is gained from the nutrition; even while the nutrition exists, nothing is gained. After the physical body perishes, nothing is gained; even while the physical body exists, likewise nothing is gained.

Yet because the seven consciousnesses crave food and drink, they are locked within the six realms of saṃsāra in the desire realm, suffering again and again. Gaining a momentary, fleeting feeling of sensation, they instead sink for tens of millions of years in the bitter ocean of birth and death—how do the suffering and pleasure compare?

It is the same when the eye sees forms, the ear hears sounds, the nose smells scents, the body feels tangibles, and the mind discerns dharmas: a brief, impermanent, illusory pleasant feeling is exchanged for endless suffering—why endure such bitterness?

Constantly contemplate the "self" within your own mind, and observe whether, amid the various activities of the five-aggregate body, everything revolves around that so-called self—taking your own capacity for awareness and feeling as the truly real self, taking the various activities of the physical body as the truly real self—and then craving and grasping at these so-called selves without realizing it, so that the suffering of birth and death never ceases and the cycle of saṃsāra never ends.

Frequently keep the mind in meditative concentration (samādhi), observing and introspecting upon your own words and deeds, finding that beloved "self" within the mind, contemplating it through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), deliberating upon it, subduing it, dissolving it, and finally letting go of it and eradicating it—then you will no longer be bound by it, and only then can you attain liberation and attain ease.