“I’m not enlightened yet” (looks at watch)
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Its no different from other addictions in that suppression wont work. Suppression might be the first response to understanding the drawbacks of sensuality however. Then one comes to see that it doesn’t work.
The basic teachings are that any desire can lead to either suffering or gain.
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Suffering for what has yet not been developed/attained.
Craving for enlightenment causes suffering but helps to overcome it too.
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I read a portion of MN73 just now which made me remember the above.
Leaving aside Master Gotama, the monks, and the nuns, is there even a single layman disciple of Master Gotama — white-clothed and celibate — who, with the ending of the five lower fetters, is reborn spontaneously, to be extinguished there, not liable to return from that world?
There are not just one hundred such celibate laymen who are my disciples, Vaccha, or two or three or four or five hundred, but many more than that.
Leaving aside Master Gotama, the monks, the nuns, and the celibate laymen, is there even a single layman disciple of Master Gotama — white-clothed, enjoying sensual pleasures, following instructions, and responding to advice — who has gone beyond doubt, got rid of indecision, and lives self-assured and independent of others regarding the Teacher’s instruction?
There are not just one hundred such laymen enjoying sensual pleasures who are my disciples, Vaccha, or two or three or four or five hundred, but many more than that.
If I’m reading this correctly, enjoying sensual pleasures is not necessarily a problem, but it’s not the fast track.
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