We want to see that taking place so that we can actually see through it and not be fooled by it. W hen there's a moment of pleasure, we want to be able to see that as simple pleasure. If we can't see it as simply pleasure, then when there's an awful moment of disappointment and despair and grief, we can't see through that either. We could do that, and on one level of religious practice I think that's what we do sometimes. It's this issue of whether enjoying pleasure itself is the problem or whether it's our relationship to the pleasure that's the problem.
T hat's where the problem is, the sense of attachment.
Because if it does, and somebody rips out the clematis, then there's my pain, there's a problem. It does feel good. And with right effort, with careful sensitive effort, we can actually inhibit that reaction from taking place. We can see it as not necessary. A s much as we might want to do it, there's something within us that quite naturally knows it's inappropriate to try and grasp life.