Pleasure & Pain are you on your way to Pleasure?

Question

"When we say, then, that pleasure is the end & Aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality......By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body & of trouble in the soul".....Epicurus (341-270 B.C)..........

Answer 1

Ah, good old Epi. The philosophy of pleasure and duty. It's not a bad idea to ask yourself two questions:
1.- What's good(pleasure) for me today?
2.- What do I need(duty) to do today?

OF course you might not like the answers, but if you don't ask, you will never know. At the beginning some things seem difficult, but at the end of the day, though the sun will set and the night will come, you will have light within and everything will be clearer. Even in the darkest dreams, your soul will shine.

Sapere aude!

There's no profit where no pleasure is taken...Plato.

Good luck!

Answer 2

As Long as we seek for pleasure we will get equal amount of pain also.
Cause Pleasure and pain are different in degree not in nature.
Like Absence of our defined happiness is unhappiness.
So stop defining happiness so that unhappiness will also leave us.
And that is the ultimate Joy, ultimate Bliss.
And there is nothing like trouble in the soul. Soul is ever pure its the mind that says we are impure.
Soul is the cause for this mind and body to work i.e. it is the source for everything and if it is in trouble then who can save it?
So soul is ever pure otherwise we cannot become pure.
We are not going to get anything from above the skies.
Everything is inside us.
That purity is already there which we have forgotten.
It is the mind which says pure or impure we are much more beyond that.
So when we realize ourselves as souls we are beyond pain and pleasure and that is absolute Joy and Bliss.

Answer 3

Well most of us want to avoid pain and many of our life choices revolve around this. But some pain is necessary. If you always avoid pain then you may not be taking any risks, playing it too safe, afraid to get hurt, therefore not really living. If you're afraid of pain you would never open your heart and fall in love, thereby missing out on life's greatest pleasure and joy. Some people use drugs & alcohol to numb their pain which is unhealthy and winds up hurting them more in the long run. The important thing is to focus on the pleasures in life & don't let the pains consume you. But they are both a part of being alive...

Answer 4

As my body gets older I realize what pleasure was and how I lost it. Pain and more pain on the way. I don't mind though. It makes me who I am.

What I think Epicurus was hinting at is that as you get older you cut down on the stupid things that cause you pain, like twisting your ankle trying to put a ball in the net. You know you shouldn't have been doing that at your age. You realize that the more you go through life the more pain you pick up. You should minimize it in the soul by gaining wisdom on how to co-exist. You should minimize it to the body and realize you are no longer superman.

Answer 5

Pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other. To know pleasure you must know pain and choose between the two of them. Some people choose pain and sorrow for whatever reasons. A few choose pleasure and the majority never realize they have a choice.

Answer 6

Humans are made to be pleasure seeking. Imo we are addicted to many things through habit, including thoughts, feelings, sensations, and beliefs even. What this means is that when that addiction is neurologically fed, relief is felt and relief is a pleasure. It could be the relief of feeling weak when inhaling smoke simply because we get addicted to the feeling of weakness. It could be the feeling of relief when we eat from the addiction to food. Epicurus was wrong, imo, about "the pleasures of the prodigal (whatever that meant) or the pleasures of sensuality). They are ALL addictions. When we stop having addictions, we croak. What we need to do is to choose our addictions well. I mean it's kinda dumb to get addicted to pain and suffering when we can get addicted to love, innit?

Answer 7

Well, it is a pleasure not to feel pain, - the older you get the more you recognize.
They are the two companions in our lifes, we have them always in us making our experiences sometimes so bittersweet.
It´s important not to overestimate their importance searching pleasure or searching pain, as pain finds you by itself and pleasure you can find or ignore.
As we humans are still left alone with all these intriguer questions for what we are on earth and where to we are going (if we are going), there is nothing to do than to go on, walk that way with these two loyal dogs jumping around our steps.
You can put that in different boxes, e.g. if you look to that on psychological focus you can call it ´self-realization´, in a more religious way they call it the ´TAO´, it is simply the way, not the way to. (aahhh, ifff we could know more.......)

Answer 8

Child's Play
Witten Impromptu by EJ Priestley

[e-mail]
P.O. Box 86-1602
Los Angeles, CA
90086-1602

[phone]

Eye looked

saw broken
a child who
once was
but not metaphors
gossamer images or
questionable intangible symbols
but a heartbeat
bone hard with flesh
that knew hunger & thirst
desire & the burst of pomegranetes
in the heat of summers

Eye blinked

mirrors of me
became ashes & stardust
& tan glistened skin
in sand castles of puzzles
& bee stings
in the roar of oceans
made of laughter
whose only eternity
was a rain puddle
to be splashed for the splashing
whose only understanding
was sunrise for the rising
& the school bell for recess
or over
the colored snow ice & carnival
of ferriswheels & fireflies
& crickets filliing pockets
ladybugs & marbles & mountains of chocolate
Eye closed

for a nap
Eye dreamed
back to life &
found hope to arrive
#

Answer 9

I was always taught to find the pleasure in the pain.

If we felt no pain, we could slice our arm off and bleed to death and never realize the danger we were in. If we did not feel emotional pain, we would not know the joy of emotional resolution. In both instances, we would remain numb to both our body and soul. In essence, we would lose our consciousness.

Not a good thing. Not at all.

Answer 10

The highest quality pleasure is when pain is self-inflicted. It is our aim to get the greatest pleasure that alone can propel us to invite pain. A state of total lack of pain is an inanimate state of no purpose as well.