Episode 32 – Enabling Samsara Step by Step

Another section of the wheel of life breaks things down into twelve steps, which illustrate how we perpetuate samsara • the first step is ignorance, which is represented by the image of a blind grandmother • the blind grandmother has put things in motion; she has produced grandchildren, but because she is blind she has no idea what their effect is going to be • today’s focus is on the progression of three of the twelve steps: sensing, feeling, and craving • our sense perceptions—seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and thinking—are like little pinholes through which we look at our world • when our sense organs are stimulated, feelings of pleasure or displeasure arise • this is represented by an arrow in the eye—the experience is extremely vivid and intense, and so is our reaction to it • at that point we’re susceptible to craving: we react instantaneously, before we even notice what is happening • the point is to interrupt those patterns so that we’re a little bit looser, a little bit less easily captured by the pleasures and pains that are simply part of life