闲人

What we often fail to realize is that anything we pursue is essentially, at its core, an attempt to solve a problem of the mind.

One essentially does not contact anything outside of the mind.
Although we might experience 'seeing' for example, as being inside our own heads and looking out of our eyes as if they were windows, we don't really 'see' anything except for the image created by our brain from information relayed by the eyes. And so it goes for all our other senses.

Pleasure and pain are similar. They are but information contacting our awareness. We set various kinds of goals but in the end all of them are either to obtain sensations that we like or avoid those we don't, from something simple like gratification of physical senses, to spiritual needs, satisfaction, pride, love. Avoiding the sense of emptiness that sometimes arises. All that we do is in the service of manipulating our system such that the awareness contacts pleasure and does not contact pain.

So instead of the food, music, and other pleasurable things, what we really enjoy is the pleasure that these things influence our system into feeling. So we pursue these things that create pleasurable sensations, and we pursue goals that enable us to obtain things that create pleasurable sensations.

But what we fail to realize is that essentially, at its core, all this is an attempt to solve a (perhaps imaginary) problem of the mind not feeling (or potentially not feeling)what we want it to feel.

One who seeks the truth must first understand one thing:
What happens when one decides to take a piece of information and incorporate it into one's beliefs.

What happens is that the very first reaction to an idea is often an emotional one. If a person is asked why they hold certain beliefs, they will probably have reasons that they, at least, believe are rational and reasonable. But if one observes the process of the creation of a belief, especially those that are important to one's self, the first reaction to a new idea is one of "I agree/like/disagree/dislike this". Then the rational mind kicks in and starts to think of reasons why one agrees or disagrees with something.

As time goes by, if the belief is important enough, one starts collecting information in daily life that supports the belief and discounts or ignores information that goes against it, thereby strengthening it. Or, when one comes across information that goes against one's beliefs, one makes 'exceptions' to place it into one's belief system without disrupting it. But there is delusion in thinking that one is being rational when one is merely collecting rational arguments to support an emotional conclusion.

Perhaps by now some of you reading this already have a response to the above point. If you remain unbiased at this point, whether because of your objectivity or because the point in question is of no concern to you, then you are probably in a position of seeing this issue clearly. Those who already have their own response to the point in question, it may be worthwhile to have a think back at the instant where you started to agree/disagree. Was the decision made after considering both sides objectively, or did the agreeing/disagreeing come first, before a list of "rational" arguments were considered?

If you seek the truth, I think it is fruitful to consider this well. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree, regardless of how you came to agree or disagree, observe the process and consider it well.