4👑☸ Cattāri Ariya-saccaṃ 四聖諦

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It's only as hard as you make it

OHMI‍ 0 – Introduction and preliminaries
OHMI‍ 1 – Standard EBT toolkit for destroying lust
    OHMI‍ 1.1 – Mastery of perception
    OHMI‍ 1.2 – Eat food in moderation
    OHMI‍ 1.3 – Guard 6 doors of the senses
    OHMI‍ 1.4 – develop 4 jhānas
    OHMI‍ 1.5 – lessons of the instructive dead
    OHMI‍ 1.6 – You can’t destroy what you don’t understand
OHMI‍ 2 – Don’t fall for the FIB
OHMI‍ 3 – Inspiring stories of conquering lust
OHMI‍ 4 – Multimedia a-subha 🧟‍ tools
OHMI‍ 5 – Misc.

detailed TOC

 OHMI‍ 0 – Introduction and preliminaries
    OHMI‍ 0.1 - What does "It's only as hard as you make it” actually mean?
    OHMI‍ 0.2 - But a much deeper Buddhist meaning...
OHMI‍ 1 – Standard EBT toolkit for destroying lust
    OHMI‍ 1.1 – Mastery of perception
        OHMI‍ 1.1.1 – asubha (perceive un-attractiveness)
        OHMI‍ 1.1.2 – be aware of sly and covert subha)
        OHMI‍ 1.1.3 – replace bad subha with good subha)
    OHMI‍ 1.2 – Eat food in moderation
    OHMI‍ 1.3 – Guard 6 doors of the senses
    OHMI‍ 1.4 – develop 4 jhānas
    OHMI‍ 1.5 – lessons of the instructive dead
    OHMI‍ 1.6 – You can’t destroy what you don’t understand
OHMI‍ 2 – Don’t fall for the FIB
    OHMI‍ 2.20 – Don’t fall for the FIB
    OHMI‍ 2.21 – BIF the FIB
        OHMI‍ 2.21.1 – Ajahn Chah simile of nostril
OHMI‍ 3 – Inspiring stories of conquering lust
OHMI‍ 4 – Multimedia a-subha 🧟‍ tools
OHMI‍ 5 – Misc.

It's only as hard as you make it

A reference manual and toolkit for overcoming and destroying lust and passion for the five cords of sensual pleasure.
This book will endeavor to leave out the pāḷi, just summarize excerpts from key suttas in plain language.

for more in depth and detailed doctrinal treatment of this subject, see:

kāma‍
a-subha 🧟‍
31asb🧟‍
9siv⚰️

0 – Introduction and preliminaries

0.1 - What does "It's only as hard as you make it” actually mean?

In short, we usually sabotage ourselves right from the start by thinking something is impossible or very difficult, when it need not be.
Here are some of the ways:

**Self-Imposed Difficulty**:
The challenges you're facing are influenced by your mindset.
If you approach something with a negative attitude or overcomplicate it,
it will feel more difficult than it actually is.

**Mind Over Matter**:
Your perception and mental approach play a big role in how difficult something seems.
If you believe you can handle a task,
it may feel easier, and vice versa.

**Effort-Based**:
How much effort, preparation, or time you invest can affect the difficulty.
If you don't put in the effort or if you procrastinate, the task may become harder.

**Simplification vs. Overcomplication**:
Sometimes people overthink or overanalyze tasks, making them more difficult than they need to be.
This phrase can be a reminder to simplify the approach.

**Personal Accountability**:
It highlights personal responsibility, implying that you're partly responsible for the challenges you face.
If you view a situation as too hard,
it might be because you're making it that way.

**Optimism vs. Pessimism**:
This could be about attitude —
if you’re pessimistic or doubtful, everything seems harder,
while optimism can make things seem more manageable.

**Control Over Reactions**:
You can’t always control the situation,
but you can control your reaction to it.
How hard something feels depends on how you choose to react.

Each of these interpretations ties back to the idea that difficulty is often shaped by our mindset or approach.

0.2 - But a much deeper Buddhist meaning...

What does "It's only as hard as you make it” actually mean?
In the context of overcoming lust and passion, which seems impossible?
When the 5 sensory faculties contact the 5 external sensory input,
eyes seeing form, ears hearing sound, etc.,

You take that raw sensory data, form perceptions about that sensory experience,
and then you "make", you sankhāra (volition) that experience into signs (nimitta) and features.
You "make" the determination of that experience being pleasant, painful, neutral.
You "make" the determination of that experience being useful, dangerous, beautiful, ugly, etc.

When you are misled by the sign of beauty (subha nimitta),
and "make" volitions to like, attach, grab on to that pleasant experience, own it, possess it, become it, "make" it part of your empire of "self",
You "make" your own suffering.

You have veto power.
You don't have to "make" your own suffering.
You can see the 5 streams of sensory data as empty, unreal, unreliable, unworthy of attraction, grabbing, attaching, owning.

Then you realize you don't have to "make" suffering.
You have veto power, you have free will every moment, if you train your mind properly.

Instead of making suffering,
You "make" peace, contentment, detachment, happiness.

It's only as hard as you make it.

1 – Standard EBT toolkit for destroying lust

1.1 – Mastery of perception

1.1.1 – asubha (perceive un-attractiveness)

do a-subha 🧟‍ perception (most notably using 31asb🧟‍), to counteract perception of subha (beautiful women).
feed find with asubha instead of letting it’s natural inclination to feed on subha

1.1.2 – be aware of sly and covert subha)

become aware of sly and covert subha perceptions that we don't think of as feeding lust, such as building strong muscles at the gym (AN 7.51).

1.1.3 – replace bad subha with good subha)

neutralize subha by substituting perceptions: trick mind into turning subha of beautiful women into neutral perception of platonic blood relatives. See women nonsexually, according to age, as you would your sister, daughter, mother, etc. In general, use 5👑abi️ to turn any negative perception into a skillful one. For example, when feeling horny (negative), turn it into a positive by perceiving that one has strong mojo and force in order to feel horny, the same force allows one to clear up energy channels and advance in jhānas quickly. Whereas indulging in horniness will quickly kill or lower jhāna quality and health.

1.2 – Eat food in moderation

2b. When solid food (is) completely-understood, {desire for the} five sensuality-strings 5kg is completely-understood. When 5kg is completely understood, nirvana happens. 2c. (Non EBT comment: eating nutrient rich foods like meat, pungent roots like garlic and onion stimulates lust and production of sexual fluids)

1.3 – Guard 6 doors of the senses

Guard 6 sense doors as in AN 4.14 and AN 3.16, right now, every moment, not 5 minutes from now when lust has grown from a campfire into a raging 2000 acre inferno.

1.4 – develop 4 jhānas

Not only is the mind in samādhi necessary to penetrate into the nature of lust to transcend it, but when you have a pleasure much greater than lust, and even greater than pleasure in the highest god realms, you won't be tempted on inferior 5kg lust. First Jhāna is much easier than you think (j1🌘 easy).

1.5 – lessons of the instructive dead

sometimes the best way to learn what you should do is by carefully studying and understanding what things you shouldn't do and why. See Vin‍ sex offense rules and kāma crime💘🦹‍ database.

1.6 – You can’t destroy what you don’t understand

It always comes back to 4 nobles truths.
knowing, seeing, understanding dukkha, lust, passion.
seeing and understanding the cause.
abandon the conditions and causes which produce lust and suffering.

Otherwise doing asubha is just a trick to distract yourself from your worst impulses.

Understanding the nature of lust MN 54 similes for disadvantages of kama MN 75 best simile of all time, leper scratching itch. AN 5.55 mother and son incest SN 46.51 feeding the mind with a-subha 🧟‍ to starve lust for subha.

Understanding the nature of lust

MN 54 similes for disadvantages of kama
MN 75 best simile of all time, leper scratching itch.
AN 5.55 mother and son incest
SN 46.51 feeding the mind with a-subha 🧟‍ to starve lust for subha.

2 – Don’t fall for the FIB



It's only as hard as you make it

A toolkit for destroying lust and passion for sensuality ( kāma‍ and 5kg )

AN 3.16 1. guard sense doors, 2. moderation in eating, 3. walk and sit meditation in free time.
SN 8.4 Ananda's advice to (future) arahant Vangisa obsessed with lust. Turning away from subha nimitta and also do 31asb🧟‍.
SN 35.127 1. see women as mom, sister, daughter. 2. When I do a-subha 🧟‍ with 31asb🧟‍, I still just see subha (beautiful women). 3. guard sense doors
SN 12.63 clarifies the purpose of AN 3.16's understanding the nutriment of food leads to understanding the nature of lust.
AN 7.51 men's unwise attention to masculine features leads to lust for feminine features. Working out in gym is much more dangerous than you think.
MN 14: even though a disciple see with wisdom that sensual pleasures are dangerous and unsatisfying, until they have the pleasure of jhānas 4j🌕 (at minimum j1🌘), they are still tempted by coarse sensual pleasures.
Vin‍: In the Vinaya, studying Pārājika #1 and relevant Saṅghādisesā sections on lust, as well as keeping in mind this advice the Buddha gave his monks: 👉👄🐍 It would be better, foolish-man, for your penis to enter the mouth of a terrible and poisonous snake rather than {inserting your penis into a} woman’s vagina.

Summary of tools in key suttas above

1. asubha counteracts subha.
1b. become aware of covert subha.
1c. neutralize subha by substituting perceptions.
2. eat food correctly.
2b. understand nutriment of food to understand lust and passion.
3. guard sense doors, always.
4. do jhāna and partial jhāna, all the time.
5. what not to do and why.

1. do a-subha 🧟‍ perception (most notably using 31asb🧟‍), to counteract perception of subha (beautiful women).
      1b. become aware of sly and covert subha perceptions that we don't think of as feeding lust, such as building strong muscles at the gym (AN 7.51).
      1c. neutralize subha by substituting perceptions: trick mind into turning subha of beautiful women into neutral perception of platonic blood relatives. See women nonsexually, according to age, as you would your sister, daughter, mother, etc. In general, use 5👑abi️ to turn any negative perception into a skillful one. For example, when feeling horny (negative), turn it into a positive by perceiving that one has strong mojo and force in order to feel horny, the same force allows one to clear up energy channels and advance in jhānas quickly. Whereas indulging in horniness will quickly kill or lower jhāna quality and health.

2. Eat food in moderation.
      2b. When solid food (is) completely-understood, {desire for the} five sensuality-strings 5kg is completely-understood. When 5kg is completely understood, nirvana happens.
      2c. (Non EBT comment: eating nutrient rich foods like meat, pungent roots like garlic and onion stimulates lust and production of sexual fluids)

3. Guard 6 sense doors as in AN 4.14 and AN 3.16, right now, every moment, not 5 minutes from now when lust has grown from a campfire into a raging 2000 acre inferno.

4. Develop 4 Jhānas. Not only is the mind in samādhi necessary to penetrate into the nature of lust to transcend it, but when you have a pleasure much greater than lust, and even greater than pleasure in the highest god realms, you won't be tempted on inferior 5kg lust. First Jhāna is much easier than you think (j1🌘 easy).

5. Lessons from the instructive dead, or: sometimes the best way to learn what you should do is by carefully studying and understanding what things you shouldn't do and why. See Vin‍ sex offense rules and kāma crime‍ database.


Understanding the nature of lust

MN 54 similes for disadvantages of kama
MN 75 best simile of all time, leper scratching itch.
AN 5.55 mother and son incest
SN 46.51 feeding the mind with a-subha 🧟‍ to starve lust for subha.

Inspiring stories of conquering lust

AN 5.75 AN 5.76 similes of warriors conquest over temptation.
SN 8.4 Ananda's advice to (future) arahant Vangisa obsessed with lust, just like the rest of us.

Multimedia a-subha 🧟‍ tools 🔗part 1 | 🔗part 2 (for advanced)
🔗audio material
🔗 AN 7.51 so you think working out at the gym is healthy and harmless?
🔗MN 13 helpful images: gratification, drawback, escape from 5kg, rūpa, and vedana



2.20 – Don’t fall for the FIB

F.I.B. = (F)ooled by the (I)mperative of (B)iology
What is BI (Biological Imperative)?

In general, most of BI falls under the three F’s.
Feeding, Fighting, Fornication.

One of the keys to overcoming carnal lust, passion, sensuality (desire for 5 strings of sensual pleasure),
is understanding the true nature of BI.

BI is impersonal.
You have roughly 75 trillion cells in your body,
each cell has a life span of less than 7 years.
They clone themselves, imperfectly, and billions of cells die, are cloned, and recycled and eliminated from “your” body everyday.
This process is happening continuously.

On the micro (personal) level, this is happening.
On the macro level, living organisms, including humans, survive by reproducing, allowing the species to survive.

Now feeding and caring for yourself, let alone a partner, offspring, family, clan, is a lot of work.
Before industrialization, even the simple act of eating for survival was a monumental struggle.
It’s a lot of work, a lot of suffering to survive on the micro and macro level.
How did humans and other species manage to survive?

Enter BI (biological imperative).
This comes in the form of pain and pleasure.
Pain lets you know you’re doing something harmful to micro and macro survival.
Pleasure floods your brain with addictive euphoric chemicals that pervade your whole physical body and you feel powerless to resist its addictive urges.

So how can you surmount this seemingly irrestible force?

Lots of practice, patience, diligence, and forgiving yourself for missteps.
Just as one can be disciplined in eating once or day,
or eating only between sunrise and solar noon time,
one gradually comes to deeply understand that those physical euphoric pleasurable feelings are just BI.
Don’t fall for the FIB, don’t be ruled by the biological imperative.
Understand it, and put it in its proper place.
You need to respond to pain to prevent harming your physical health,
and to an extent you need to listen to pleasurable feelings (sukha vedana) from eating to tune in to know which foods contain nutrients you need.
Needs change with time and conditions depending on how you use your body.

But beyond those essential survival needs,
don’t fall for the FIB.
If you’re aiming for nirvana, following the precepts of celibacy/chastity/brahmacariya,
you can completely ignore sexual impulses.
BI that is related to sleeping and eating,
you have to pay attention to,
but sexual urges you can train yourself to completely ignore, they only do you harm.
Treat them like you would robo calls, unsolicited advertising, spam.
Incinerate immediately.
If you don’t you give it potential to harm you gravely.

2.21 – BIF the FIB

Invert the FIB: slave becomes master.
B.I.F. = biological imperative falsified.
B.I.F. = biological imperative failed.

2.21.1 – Ajahn Chah simile of nostril

It’s the same with the senses.
Sexual intercourse excites the minds of people,
but it really isn’t different from sticking a finger in your nostril.
Would that mean anything special to you?
But worldly beings have this attachment to the other entrance;
whether it is animals or humans, it has special importance to them.
If it were a finger picking a nostril,
they wouldn’t get excited over that.
But the sight of this one inflames us.
Why is this?
This is where becoming is.
If we don’t attach special importance to it,
then it’s just the same as putting a finger in your nostril.
Whatever happened inside, you wouldn’t get excited;
you’d just pull out some snot and be done with it.

Right restraint

In 1979 in Barre, Massachusetts, during a question-and-answer session while on retreat,
someone asked Ajahn Chah, “Is it necessarily a barrier to be in a sexual relationship?
Can one not view sex in terms of it being the dance of the sacred marriage?
Couldn’t it be noble and mystical?”
After Ajahn Chah had the question translated,
he pondered for a moment and then started picking his nose in a very graphic and extended way.
When everyone was rolling on the floor laughing and he was sure they definitely got the point,
he pulled his finger out of his nose:
“There’s nothing more to it than that, except what the mind adds to it.”
Perhaps this story has been altered a bit in the telling,
but it’s still a good story.

3 – Inspiring stories of conquering lust

AN 5.75 AN 5.76 similes of warriors conquest over temptation.
SN 8.4 Ananda's advice to (future) arahant Vangisa obsessed with lust, just like the rest of us.

4 – Multimedia a-subha 🧟‍ tools

Multimedia a-subha 🧟‍ tools 🔗part 1 | 🔗part 2 (for advanced)
🔗audio material
🔗 AN 7.51 so you think working out at the gym is healthy and harmless?
🔗MN 13 helpful images: gratification, drawback, escape from 5kg, rūpa, and vedana

5 – Misc.



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