Pleasure and Buddhism: Turning Cravings into Compassion

From a Buddhist perspective, we can't have opposite states of mind at once, though sometimes they alternate quickly, and it seems that way. Sometimes, though, these ideas of selflessness produce their own kind of fear: fear of losing oneself or fear that nothing exists at all. But if you can use pleasure itself as an object of your meditation on emptiness, then that pleasurable aspect of your mind helps you to be less upset about dissolving yourself into a positive, pleasurable state of mind, instead of losing yourself into nothingness.