LIKE - DISLIKE
Like and dislike are the two main currents of mind’s conditioning and together with desire the root of our suffering.
Ego operates constantly through the currents of like and dislike. Every moment we like or dislike something, we feel attraction or repulsion for something.
These two currents keep us attached to the senses, body and sensory mind.
Identification with the body, senses and mind and attachment to sense objects is strengthened by the continuous manifestation in our psyche of the like and dislike currents and desire as well. According my enquiries like and dislike are only children of desire.
The ego is developed and strengthened in our psyche by the constant operation of these two currents in the mind.
Our ego likes what seems pleasant and favorable to its pleasure, happiness, comfort, self-image, etc. (in relation to the senses, the body and vital energy, -things, persons, situations, condition of body) and dislikes what seems unpleasant or unfavorable to it.
In the mind the 'like' is expressed by thoughts like: 'I like this or that', 'I would like to possess it or experience it' etc..
At the outer heart level as an attraction and a pleasant sensation.
The 'dislike' in the mind appears by thoughts like: 'I don't like him or it', 'This is awful', etc.
At the outer heart level as aversion, repulsion or some kind unpleasant sensation.
Our ego almost constantly tries to avoid what dislikes and get what it likes. Our ego thinks that will be happy and fulfilled if gets what is pleasant and avoid what is unpleasant. But this is the root of our delusion and suffering.
Our ego cannot see that the effort to find fulfillment and happiness by avoiding what dislikes and by getting what likes is the very cause of misery and suffering.
Our ego cannot also see that happiness, fulfillment and plenitude have nothing to do with pleasant experiences through the senses.
Pleasant experiences can give only some momentary vital-satisfaction but are always accompanied by anxiety, agony, uneasiness, impatience, fear, anger, resentment, disappointment and depression. We cannot avoid all these side effects while we are seeking pleasurable experiences and we are operating in the like-dislike mode.
The ego cannot rest peacefully even for a second. The ego is seeking compulsively (almost constantly) some interested, pleasurable, pleasant or exhilarating experience. No indulgence with some sensory experience is like death for the ego. Since it is impossible, for various reasons, to experience continuously pleasure or pleasant sensations and situations, our ego assumes the form of discontentment, insatisfaction, boredom, incompleteness, a sense of lack. One or more of these emotions are almost present in our psych.
Moreover our ego becomes angry against what impedes it to get what is favorable to it, or causes the loss of its favorable object. Ego is afraid of not to get or to lose its favorable object (object can be a thing, a person, a situation etc.).
The constant indulgence with the senses and sense experiences keeps our psychology and vital energy in a state of anxiety and stress. Stress and anxiety are inevitable if we dwell always in the senses, reacting to every situation and object with attraction, repulsion, like and dislike.
If at the end our ego doesn't get or loses its favorable object then becomes disappointed, depressed and sad.
Since all objects as well as all the sensory experiences, are finite, have many conditionings and limitations, have a beginning and an end, we cannot find through them real happiness, fulfillment, completeness, and a deep, permanent satisfaction.
Limited, finite things cannot promote us unlimited, unconditioned happiness and fulfillment. By default is impossible.
Only something infinite, unconditional, ever full and complete can give us infinite and unlimited happiness and fullness.
This is our divine nature, the Atman or Consciousness, which is ever present, unchanged, immortal, and of the nature of unalloyed Peace, Bliss and Freedom.
Eliminate the currents of like-dislike and their mother desire, meditate on the silent space of Consciousness within and live the peace, bliss and freedom eternal.