perception
9th April 2004, 16:01
of pain and pleasure
There are some among us who would convince us that man has been placed on earth to suffer. It is for wont of suffering that they label pleasure as pain and pain as pleasure. They convince themselves to feel guilty for experiencing or pursuing happiness; they label sensual pleasures as sins and indulgences. What nonsense is this? There is nothing sinful about happiness, no more than there is anything noble about suffering. That 'the meek shall inherit the earth' is a lie. The meek shall inherit the same thing for their efforts as the wealthy and wicked shall inherit for theirs: death. Human beings are scared of earthly happiness, for it is unfamiliar. Pain, on the other hand, is familiar; pain is comfortable. We reconcile our fear of happiness by imagining our suffering as righteous, and casting the happiness of others as sin to be repented from. But it is because they believe that they will receive infinite pleasure in the next life that they forgo it in this one; there is nothing noble about their deprivation.
On the other hand, the ascetics view deprivation as freedom. They seek to free themselves from want and desire in order to free themselves from suffering; they mean to separate the soul from the body. This doctrine has some merit to it. Kant distinguishes ‘animal will’ as a will which is determined by stimuli and impulse, and ‘free will’ as a will that can be determined by pure reason. As human beings, the degree to which our will is affected by impulse, and hence desire, is the degree to which we cannot use pure reason. The freer one is from desire and the pursuit of sensual pleasures, the freer one is to use the faculties of reason.
But to completely free one’s self from sensual pleasure is to free one’s self from animalistic desire; and that denies the very fundamental point that we are, at base, animals. The quest for self-realization can lead us astray of this point; in our search for purpose, it is common to imagine ourselves more than human, something supernatural or divine. This is folly. The first step to self-realization is realizing that you are an animal. You are, however, a very special animal; one with a very well-developed ability to reason. To deny our desires is misguided. To harness them and bring them under our control is infinitely more valuable. Our reason should be the tool with which we satisfy our wants and desires, our impulses and instincts, to the greatest degree possible.
There are some among us who would convince us that man has been placed on earth to suffer. It is for wont of suffering that they label pleasure as pain and pain as pleasure. They convince themselves to feel guilty for experiencing or pursuing happiness; they label sensual pleasures as sins and indulgences. What nonsense is this? There is nothing sinful about happiness, no more than there is anything noble about suffering. That 'the meek shall inherit the earth' is a lie. The meek shall inherit the same thing for their efforts as the wealthy and wicked shall inherit for theirs: death. Human beings are scared of earthly happiness, for it is unfamiliar. Pain, on the other hand, is familiar; pain is comfortable. We reconcile our fear of happiness by imagining our suffering as righteous, and casting the happiness of others as sin to be repented from. But it is because they believe that they will receive infinite pleasure in the next life that they forgo it in this one; there is nothing noble about their deprivation.
On the other hand, the ascetics view deprivation as freedom. They seek to free themselves from want and desire in order to free themselves from suffering; they mean to separate the soul from the body. This doctrine has some merit to it. Kant distinguishes ‘animal will’ as a will which is determined by stimuli and impulse, and ‘free will’ as a will that can be determined by pure reason. As human beings, the degree to which our will is affected by impulse, and hence desire, is the degree to which we cannot use pure reason. The freer one is from desire and the pursuit of sensual pleasures, the freer one is to use the faculties of reason.
But to completely free one’s self from sensual pleasure is to free one’s self from animalistic desire; and that denies the very fundamental point that we are, at base, animals. The quest for self-realization can lead us astray of this point; in our search for purpose, it is common to imagine ourselves more than human, something supernatural or divine. This is folly. The first step to self-realization is realizing that you are an animal. You are, however, a very special animal; one with a very well-developed ability to reason. To deny our desires is misguided. To harness them and bring them under our control is infinitely more valuable. Our reason should be the tool with which we satisfy our wants and desires, our impulses and instincts, to the greatest degree possible.