Stress linked to drug use and eating binges

Here is a study that indicates that if we are stressed we will increase in our minds the value of any reward we are given. This could describe a link between drug use and stress. Stress is the modern day word for Buddha’s “suffering” i think. This study suggests that stress is the cause of great longing for and over-appreciation of relief.

So it is not religious, I think, to mediate - if we mediatate we become less stressed, less stress means we are less distracted by obsessions. If we are less distracted then we can look more deeply at our situation. If we can look more deeply at our situation then we can find the root of our problem and remove it.

Seems pretty rational to me.

Now of course if a technique can bring lasting happiness, we calssify it as relgion - as dogmatic. But more and more we are finding that there is a pragmatism behind the Buddha’s ‘religion’ that transcends the secular/religious duality.

Link to article