Has anyone successfully beaten BDD?

[Aames]

[QUOTE=mature;125427]

Here is where it is simple but can either make you suffer or just relax and enjoy things. IF you are trying to improve and strive for perfection this is delusional because it is in context to self image which is made up and whether it is good or bad its still illusive. The physical body is just like an empty vessel that you inhabit while here, there is no identification without self image. If you drop everything and forget about yourself you can still work on the body and do certain things, however there is no identity or sense of self involved in it. It is okay and perfectly fine to halt hair loss and be preventive, to work out and improve the physical vitality and strength, to better work the mind in IQ and intelligence, however its all just seen as kind of a game and you are completely unattached to it all. If you are constantly seeking improvement in the form of comparison or because of a slight feeling of being less then or inferior then it becomes neurotic and you get obsessive and compulsive. This turns something that should just be seen as fun and kind of a game into mental chains and shackles and a definite prescription of suffering. There are three ways human beings trick themselves into suffering, first is the false sense of needing to control everything. The second is wishing things were different, and the third is arguing with what is.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve the functioning or keep aesthetics as long as you are completely unattached and realize it is not you. Once there is no identity or sense of self there is no emotional turmoil or psychological suffering. You have to see the impermanence of things and realize everything comes to a pass, in terms of body when we age we all lose our looks that is just something that happens with age, you will not look as good at 70 as you did at 25.

Hope this makes sense, it can seem a little too far over some heads if a person is too identified with their personal or collective conditioning.

I think I understand what you are saying. I should attach no importance to aesthetics as they are fleeting and not actually a representation of me? I can pursue them if I recognize my body as only a vessel and I separate my mental/emotional being from my physical being? You have really helped me think about things differently, mature. I have to thank you yet again for your detailed responses.