Hi people, I hope you’re having a fantastic weekend.
There’s one question I want to ask: can the habit of creating art (photographing, drawing, acting and dancing) be considered a wholesome form of craving or it’s the opposite?
Let’s say you’re a photographer, and want to invest in gear to improve your craft (in case you’re working in a photo-lab). Can that be considered a wholesome craving, or it’s the opposite?
Looking forward to hear your thoughts about this interesting topic.
Their photography is obviously an expression of their care and wish to preserve endangered culture. That seems relatively wholesome to me!
If your photography involves breaking the five precepts or causing harm to yourself or others, then that would be akusala.
For everything in between, you have to ask “compared to what?” If your photography is distracting you from your practice of meditation then you should probably set it aside and go sit! If it’s pulling you away from a gambling addiction, then please snap away!
We have to be honest with ourselves and where we’re at in the gradual path rather than seek out easy, black-and-white answers.
I wouldn’t consider that as craving. In example Doctor, Homeopath or similar also invests into gear that helps to improve their work. For a lot of Homeopaths / Naturopaths their work is also their “hobby”. In my eyes that’s very wholesome
My main query is the wording of “wholesome form of ‘craving’”. I haven’t come across EBT material that classifies any form of craving as wholesome.
Perhaps a better wording would be ‘intention’ - as there are wholesome and skillful intentions and unwholesome and unskillful intentions. From my comprehension of the dhamma, wholesome intentions are those that lead to less suffering - and since craving is the cause of suffering (second noble truth) wholesome intentions would have to lead to less craving in general.
If your intentions with the gear is to procure resources to assist you in your hobby or job - that’s alright! But if the new equipments take away a great deal of time from your training or path towards liberation - then you have to re-evaluate.
There are plenty of opportunities for reflection and wholesome intentions with this. I have experienced similar situations - Owing to my personal interests (was a portrait photographers for years) I am aware of how expensive photography resources can be. If in acquiring them, they bring you financial stress or make you suffer because you are unable to afford something then you can reflect on your attachments to or craving for visual forms or other aggregates involved in the process. And use this to cultivate further dispassion.
The Buddha does ask to commit and review in order to foster good qualities (An 10:73). So examine your intentions, choose what you believe is the best of them, follow through and review how it went - this can inform further decisions on similar intentions to acquire resources for your hobby and art.
Thanks for taking the time to answer this question mate. And yeah, you’re right: there’s no “wholesome craving” in the EBT; I just couldn’t find the word for my question .
Also, thank you for using the word “wholesome intentions”; now I have thing more clear than before.
May you have a blissful start of the week.
I offer a sutta on a related topic for your contemplation. It is important to note that one has to use skilful means to gradually move from craving for the coarser wordly things, to the more refined and less wordly things, and to ensure that those ‘pleasures’ are sought out, procured and used in a skilful and beneficial way.
This can be related to ‘wealth’ or livelihood as in this sutta, SuttaCentral or anything else related to activities in Samsara. There are ways the Buddha gave to assess whether this gradual progress is heading in a beneficial direction or not.
Note: it is impossible to go from full craving to ‘absence of any craving’ by an act of will and in one go. as Ven Khemarato pointed to above.
As long as one inclines in a beneficial direction it is good. This enables ever greater refinement over time. Don’t feel bad about engaging in uplifting and happy activities that give rise to beneficial states - happiness and a light and happy mind is a requirement for progress on the Path
Be happy be be a good photographer who creates skilful and beneficial work that increases the happiness and wellbeing of your self and others.
Thanks for posting this!
As Viveka pointed out above, if you’re a lay person, you’re most likely doing something to earn money. And if you’ve chosen a source of income that is beneficial to you and others, that is Right Livelihood. You can have joy knowing that you are living that part of the N8FP!
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