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There’s a passage where the Buddha says that the reason we get so stuck on sensual desires, sensual pleasures, is because we don’t see any other alternative to pain. But when you see that there is the alternative and, as you reflect on it, you see that it has fewer drawbacks, greater rewards, and that you can learn how to tap into it when you need it, then it can be your new attachment—a better one. Does anyone know in which sutta that this passage is found? Could someone help me in this?

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Even after one has seen and understood that there's a better way, that's still not sufficient to abandon sensual pleasures. One would need to attain and experience the higher path himself. As taught in MN 14:

Even though a disciple of the noble ones has clearly seen as it actually is with right discernment that sensuality is of much stress, much despair, & greater drawbacks, still — if he has not attained a rapture & pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental qualities, or something more peaceful than that[4] — he can be tempted by sensuality. But when he has clearly seen as it actually is with right discernment that sensuality is of much stress, much despair, & greater drawbacks, and he has attained a rapture & pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental qualities, or something more peaceful than that, he cannot be tempted by sensuality.

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  • Thank you for finding the source @santa100. So it is in Cula-dukkhakkhandha Sutta: The Lesser Mass of Stress (MN 14) - by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. If there wasn’t any gratification at all in our old indulgences, we wouldn’t go for them. And we won’t understand it enough to really let go of it if we never know the difference as to whether the gratification really is worth the price.
    – Saptha Visuddhi
    Jun 26, 2016 at 18:07
  • We tend to only focus on the "gratification" side of sensual pleasures, not its darker side. That's why the Buddha taught us to look at sensual pleasures in all aspects: the gratification, the danger, and the escape. And right discernment is only the beginning. One would need to follow the gradual training to cultivate all the limbs of the 8-Fold Noble Path to really put an end to craving and ignorance.
    – santa100
    Jun 26, 2016 at 22:54
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Upasaka Saptha Visuddhi, interested reader,

My person does not give you the desied target here, but maybe support for the problem:

Althought Jhana is a good alternative, still one can develope desire for it, so focus on Vipassana, here or there, or where ever one might be, removes the fetters actually.

"In one who keeps focusing on the drawbacks of clingable phenomena, craving ceases. From the cessation of craving comes the cessation of clinging/sustenance. From the cessation of clinging/sustenance comes the cessation of becoming. From the cessation of becoming comes the cessation of birth. From the cessation of birth, then aging, illness & death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair all cease. Such is the cessation of this entire mass of suffering & stress."

— SN 12.52

More on Drawbacks, adinava, here.

[Note: This is a gift of Dhamma, not meant for commercial purpose or other wordily gains]

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