Going Beyond Pain & Pleasure to Enlightenment

Going Beyond Pain & Pleasure to Enlightenment May 28th, 2015 What if I were to tell you that one of the secrets to becoming enlightened was to move beyond reaction to pain or pleasure?  That it was an act of finding the balance between both and no longer being pulled by one or the other? This is something I have started to suspect for a while now in my own experiences and meditations.  I have noticed that whenever I experience a great deal of pleasure, joy, excitement and end up receiving a lot, the universe seeks balance by then sending me the opposite.  It isn't because I have been bad, or have been undeserving I feel.  I have been very privileged in my life experiences in the realms of joy and pleasure.  Conversely I have also found that I have experienced a good amount of physical, mental, and emotional pain as well.  Does the universe seek balance?  Can one experience heaven without experiencing hell?  These are questions I have asked my self for a very long time.  I dont know if my soul would understand pure bliss were it not for the pains I have experienced.  After a few years of exploration into the realms of consciousness it seems that I keep coming back around to a desire for peace.  A desire for balance.  At first I struggle to maintain the peace and balance because the worldly appetites that bring pleasure, for me it is mostly food, pull me away from my balance.  I regret it later when my stomach hurts and I have over indulged in things that may not be the best for my body.  Then I cycle into a space of feeling irresponsible.  I have this wonderful body that helps me ground into this reality.  It allows me to experience this existence and yet I treat it so poorly.  This poor treatment typically lays in the realms of wanting to feel good. This leads me to another question.  Why are we so obsessed with always wanting to feel good?  When we are having a good experience I believe feeling good is completely appropriate.  But when we end up seeking good, as if the feeling or thoughts of good were a drug, we end up creating a cycle that wraps back around to a space of suffering.  And I don't know anyone who enjoys suffering. I am starting to clearly see that it is throug