--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > --- In > > [email protected], "tomandcindytraynoratfairfieldlis" < > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > All expectations are nothing more > > > > than premeditated anger. > > > > > > Excellent. Great line. Great insight. > > > > It doesn't even make *sense*. What the heck > > is "premeditated anger"? Is he suggesting one > > decides in advance one wants to be angry and > > creates an expectation one knows won't be > > fulfilled in order to have an excuse for the > > anger? > > Yes, that seems to be exactly what he is suggesting. > > > I suppose that could be true in some cases, but > > in *all* cases? That's patently absurd. > > > > So what happens when you have an expectation--a > > positive one--that's fulfilled? Do you therefore > > become angry because you don't have an excuse for > > your anger? > > There are expectations that invoke anger and there > are expectations that invoke temporary satisfaction. > From the point of view of Buddhist thought, both are > equally binding, and both are equally premeditated.
Just to clarify, even the expectations that "work out" and bring about a temporary sense of satisfaction are binding, because the happiness, being relative and based on relative phenomena, cannot last. And when it doesn't last, one gets angry and frustrated. In the Buddhist paradigm, the only way to break the cycle is to get beyond expectation. Some have inter- preted this teaching as needing to get beyond desire, but I don't agree with that interpretation. Desire is always going to be present. What does not need to be present is attachment to the fruits of desire or aversion to the desire not being fulfilled. In other words, the aspect of the equation that is in our control is expectation. If you're working with the handicap of expectations, you are by definition (according to this theory) setting yourself up for a fall, locking yourself into the attraction/aversion desire cycle, the wheel of karma. The only way out of the cycle is to get off the wheel. For a rare few, this seems to happen naturally. The rest actually have to work at it. In your case, I can only hope it happens naturally, because it seems clear that you don't believe you have to work at it. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
