{"id":2437,"date":"2021-09-16T13:46:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T13:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2021\/09\/16\/suffering-pleasure\/"},"modified":"2021-09-16T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-16T13:46:14","slug":"suffering-pleasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2021\/09\/16\/suffering-pleasure\/","title":{"rendered":"Suffering Pleasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

We suffer pain, but we also suffer pleasure. Fundamentally, to suffer is to be passive, to be patient rather than agent, to be acted upon, to be in the thrall of another, to be at the mercy of what is not oneself. Excessive pleasure and pain should both be avoided as one avoids heteronomy, the heteronomy of the not-self.  Compare Plato, Timaeus<\/em> 86c:<\/span><\/p>\n

. . . excessive pains and pleasures are justly to be regarded as the greatest diseases to which the soul is liable. For a man who is in great joy or in great pain, in his unreasonable eagerness to attain the one and to avoid the other, is not able to see or hear anything rightly, but he is mad and is at the same time utterly incapable of any participation in reason.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is useful to practice distancing oneself from one\u2019s sensations in order to study them objectively. To sensations good and bad, say: \u201cYou are only a sensation, an external occurrence whose effect on me, for good or ill, is partly due to my cooperation and is therefore partly under my control.\u201d The worldling seeks pleasure (\u2018excitement,\u2019 \u2018thrills\u2019) and shuns pain. The sage accepts both as byproducts of worthwhile activities. <\/span><\/p>\n

The mastery of desire and aversion is not easy, and it is a good bet that one won't advance far in it; but any advance is better than none.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We suffer pain, but we also suffer pleasure. Fundamentally, to suffer is to be passive, to be patient rather than agent, to be acted upon, to be in the thrall of another, to be at the mercy of what is not oneself. Excessive pleasure and pain should both be avoided as one avoids heteronomy, the … Continue reading “Suffering Pleasure”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,420,106,155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plato","category-pleasure-and-pain","category-spiritual-exercises","category-spiritual-hygiene"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}