The Vimalakirti Sutra 24 | How Chasing Pleasure Becomes Attachment

Why does pleasure sometimes turn into pain? In this teaching on the Vimalakirti Sutra, Khenpo Sodargye explains how chasing pleasure can quietly become attachment — and how attachment takes away inner freedom.

Through the story of Mara disguising himself as Shakra and offering celestial maidens to disturb a bodhisattva, Vimalakīrti reveals a profound Mahayana teaching: the problem is not pleasure itself, but the mind that clings to it.

In this teaching, you will explore

✦ Why pleasure itself is not the problem ✦ How chasing pleasure can become attachment ✦ Why attachment eventually turns joy into suffering ✦ How temptation can appear as beauty, comfort, success, or opportunity ✦ How Vimalakīrti sees through Mara’s deception ✦ What Dharma joy means beyond temporary pleasure ✦ How bodhicitta transforms desire into the path ✦ Why one awakened mind can become an inexhaustible lamp for others