Beyond Preferences

To go beyond preferences, I need to drop both what I prefer and what I don't. I tend to cling to what I prefer and want more and more of it. How is this different from any kind of addiction? I am repelled by what I don't prefer and cringe at it. I really don't have that much control over the mental states that arises based upon conditions. If I get something that I like, I am happy or else I am not. I guess happiness cannot be the destination then, it has to be something beside happiness and sadness. Got to sit more with this. At least, because of the question, I have been sitting more regularly though the trend has been broken for last 4 days. Have an early morning flight tomorrow, probably good time and place to sit.

Preferences

How does one practice so as to not to have preferences? I am caught in the world of preferences.

I don't understand...

why Haiti happens? Why there is inequality in world? Why some have so much that they are throwing it away and others don't have enough to eat? I have tried to reason this 100 different ways and nothing makes sense. If this is the suchness of Universe, it is a very bitter pill to swallow. There are times when this Universe looks so perfect, it won't function if it was not perfect to this degree and then there are these times.

Everything is a perception, be careful not to call it reality!

We can only perceive based on what input we get from our sense organs (including brain). We process the inputs, create a perception based on it and act upon it. Somewhere along this process, we get strongly attached to this perception and consider it a reality. It is real, but only in the context of our perception. We are co-creators of this reality and it does not exist without us. A simple example is birds don't feel as cold as humans because their body temperature is higher. What is cold to us is not cold to them. Same thing for mental formations. My mental formation might be different from your based upon how we relate to a particular situation. The thing that causes me a lot of agony might not bother you and vice-versa. The point is that if we can keep in mind that what we think as reality is only one facet of reality, based upon our conditions, we might be able to let go easily and not get stuck on things. We also can become more tolerant of other people's views, their conditions and their reactions.