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All our feelings depend on conditions... it is said that conditions are impermanent.... is it possible for us to create conditions for us to have good feelings forever ? If not , why ?

I am not saying good feelings can exist eternally ... I am saying can we create conditions for good feelings? For example by earning money we can ensure that a perpetual supply of food is available.... we fulfill the conditions of money accumulation and in return I get food. Similarly is it possible to work for something which ensures us good feelings forever or at least till we last ?

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There are three feelings:

DN34:1.4.11: sukhā vedanā, dukkhā vedanā, adukkhamasukhā vedanā.
DN34:1.4.11: pleasant, painful, and neutral.

Sukhā vedanā (e.g., "joy of sex") is prone to relishing which leads to suffering.

MN1:172-194.26: Because he has understood that relishing is the root of suffering,

How then should we practice?

DN34:1.2.5: What one thing should be developed?
DN34:1.2.6: Kāyagatāsati sātasahagatā.
DN34:1.2.6: Mindfulness of the body that is full of pleasure.

Note that sātasahagatā is not the same as sukhā vedanā. Indeed sātasahagatā is the subtle ease brought about by the relinquishing of stressful grasping at good feeling.

Sātasahagatā can be understood as "frictionless ease". Sātasahagatā is equally applicable to the sublime ease of meditation and it is also applicable to the spinning of a jet engine at full throttle.

So if "good feeling" means "grasping at pleasure", then yes, we can choose delight and suffering endlessly. Yet if we understand "good feeling" as sātasahagatā then we can also understand that right mindfulness leads to extinguishment.

AN8.63:3.1: Yato kho te, bhikkhu, ayaṁ samādhi evaṁ bhāvito hoti bahulīkato, tato tvaṁ, bhikkhu, imaṁ samādhiṁ savitakkampi savicāraṁ bhāveyyāsi, avitakkampi vicāramattaṁ bhāveyyāsi, avitakkampi avicāraṁ bhāveyyāsi, sappītikampi bhāveyyāsi, nippītikampi bhāveyyāsi, sātasahagatampi bhāveyyāsi, upekkhāsahagatampi bhāveyyāsi.
AN8.63:3.1: When this immersion is well developed and cultivated in this way, you should develop it while placing the mind and keeping it connected. You should develop it without placing the mind, but just keeping it connected. You should develop it without placing the mind or keeping it connected. You should develop it with rapture. You should develop it without rapture. You should develop it with pleasure. You should develop it with equanimity.

Sātasahagata itself must be relinquished on the path. Sātasahagata still is tangled with intention. Notice that the Buddha points to equanimity.

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  • If Mindfulness is a condition for good feeling then can we remain mindful forever ?
    – SacrificialEquation
    Mar 28, 2021 at 15:57
  • You quoted from DN34: 'mindfulness of the body that is full of pleasure' - has the word pleasure been translated from sātasahagatā?
    – user17652
    Mar 28, 2021 at 16:14
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    I was interrupted by breakfast while posting. Thanks for both helpful comments--the answer has been updated.
    – OyaMist
    Mar 28, 2021 at 16:31
  • Excellent!. ;-)
    – user17652
    Mar 28, 2021 at 16:47
  • OyaMist, sorry to come back to this. Speaking figuratively would you say that sātasahagatā can become the lure of Mara's daughters?
    – user17652
    Mar 29, 2021 at 7:28
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"... is it possible for us to create conditions for us to have good feelings forever ? ..."

This belongs to the Eternalist view (and it's categorized as Wrong view), so no, it's not possible.

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  • I am not saying good feelings can exist eternally ... I am saying can we create conditions for good feelings? For example by earning money we can ensure that a perpetual supply of food is available.... we fulfill the conditions of money accumulation and in return I get food. Similarly is it possible to work for something which ensures us good feelings forever or at least till we last ?
    – SacrificialEquation
    Mar 28, 2021 at 16:02
  • Thanks for the info but it's still not possible - any view/method/perspective containing the word forever is not possible to realize due to Samsara being impermanent.
    – user19910
    Mar 28, 2021 at 17:05
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Feelings are not for sure, intention after feelings are not for sure, touch, causing feelings, is not for sure, objects of feelings are not for sure... but one who knows and sees that what ever feeling, it's conditions, what ever arises around them, aren't for sure, abounds what ever grasphold on feelings, has uprooted touch (of not knowing), giving feelings arise, is one who has entered the secure, good householder.

What does he feel now? Watch out: How conviction in, and understanding of, inconstancy of feeling can lead to stream-entry and to sure.

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I have found the answer after thinking about it. Let us say conditions are perpetually creatable... for example happiness occurs after certain conditions are met and as it passes away we recreate the conditions and again we become happy... and so on... However this is not possible because the conditions are impermanent.... The conditions for happiness must be impermenent.... For example pain killer can be a condition for happiness... but we cant take pain killers perpetually as it is impermanent... pain killers effect and painkiller itself arise , change and vanish... thus creating sadness. Now the next question is can sadness can be created perpetually ? I think no.... Suppose you beat someone and again and again then it means you can not beat someone forever.... The person will overcome pain and will return to act like uneffected by pain....like Jesus.... ( I am only guessing)

All conditions are impermanent therefore I am not good feeling , good Feeling is not mine, good Feeling is not my self. (Same for bad feelings and neutral feelings)

Interesting is neutral feelings are also impermanent.... which means there are conditions behind neutral feelings...

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  • I'm happy to see you found out the answer yourself. That's the most valuable approach. If you really want to understand it you need to see it with your own eyes in insight meditation. Thinking about it theoretically won't cause any permanent change in you.
    – user19910
    Mar 29, 2021 at 10:50
  • @Andromeda why don’t you change ?
    – SacrificialEquation
    Mar 29, 2021 at 10:59
  • Well, I'm a Dragon and Dragons don't change.
    – user19910
    Mar 29, 2021 at 11:17
  • @Andromeda great !!! Happy for you. !!! I am waiting for the changes to happen ... I do not laugh much anymore...
    – SacrificialEquation
    Mar 29, 2021 at 11:36
  • Don't be too hard on yourself. We are all in this together. We are all in the same boat practicing to become free from Samsara. You should be happy that you had the karma to find the path in this life. That's very rare:)
    – user19910
    Mar 29, 2021 at 17:35
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Q1: If your good kamma supported you well, you are able to work for something which ensures your good feelings. But we do not know our kamma deposit, thus we cannot say for sure "forever or at least till we last".

If you insist, and holding on to the expected outcome i.e. forever or at least till we last, when outcome turn up to be NOT the case, you feel bad and asking "why?", that leads to suffering. Because not everyday is Sunshine, thus the nature of impermeant.

Q2: Feeling is one of 5 aggregates, and 5 aggregates are not I, not mine, not myself, etc. hence you are not able to create conditions forever. All conditions raises and ceases in this samsara, there is no one core, essence, absolute unchanging self that can make things in such way and not in such way, this is the nature of not-self.

By the way, we are continuously here in samsara, because our defiled mind holding onto the wrong view that we are the core, we are the essence, we are absolute unchanging self that can make things in ....

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