Pain and Pleasure, two sides of the same coin

All living creatures understand these two concepts on a basic level. We avoid pain, and we seek pleasure. However, I wonder what these truly are. What makes pleasure pleasurable? What makes pain painful? Can pain be pleasurable? Can pleasure be painful? What are they in their most basic nature? Do they intersect? Can they be transposed? Does one necessarily negate the other?

In its simplest form, I feel pleasure is just something that is attractive, and pain something that is aversive. But what if one finds pleasure in pain, or pain in pleasure? If pain and pleasure were stable concepts, how could this occur? The biggest influence is your perspective and previous experiences. I wonder if one who enjoys pain has discovered some intrinstic value in it. This split nature of what can be called pleasure or pain leads me to believe they are the same thing. A driving force. In this belief, a view is formed that any pleasure can become pain, as any pain can become pleasure, it is simply a matter of perspective.

'As I sit here and dine.

 I look across to a friend of mine.

 Looking deep within his eyes,

 I sense he feels the food I love will be his demise.

 But as he ate, a disgusted look came,

 though he enjoys it all, just the same.'

Pain and pleasure are simply a change, a change with a biased judgement placed upon them. They are percieved one way or another based solely on if one considers that change desirable or undesirable. A fakir will sleep on a bed of nails as soundly as a baby in mother's bosom. Looking further into the dynamic of pain and pleasure, we might begin to see them in a new way. Possibly, one might see pain as more valuable than pleasure. Pain is something which drives us away from bad choices, while pleasure is a reward for making good choices. But on a basis of learning, if at every choice, one ended up with a pleasurable result, would one really be learning what a good choice is? However, if one were to have painful results, you are forced to learn, forced to adapt. Each painful result teaches something of what should be avoided. The simple event of suffering pain creates instinctual avoidance, and is the primary method by which we learn through experience. It is through our suffering of pain and sadness that we grow more resilient.

One could go so far as to say pain is a good thing. This opinion applies to both physical pain and emotional pain. Pain is good in many ways. Pain gives us scale to all of our pleasure, it teaches one the ability to value pleasure, or the absence of pain. Willfully suffering pain can also aid us in other ways. Through suffering with immense pain, our view of lesser pains is dampened. The scale to which we judge other pain is based on the highest levels we have ever felt. So knowing this benefit, how might one obtain it in the most enjoyable way? It is possible, through a shift of perspective, to actually enjoy pain. I am not saying this is a good thing to do all the time, as pain exists as a signal to aid us in self preservation. But in the moments which there is no alternative but to suffer pain, one might as well enjoy it. Enjoy it as an affirmation of life. Enjoy the prospect of what you will gain through suffering this pain. So next time you have a bad headache, or some other affliction of pain, consider accepting the pain and experiencing it. It might just make your next moment of pain not seem so bad. Who knows, you might even like it.

The Only Voice That Matters

Lately, I've been thinking there's a problem today. This problem has spread to larger and larger numbers of people as time has gone on, and it saddens me that it continues to grow. The problem I've been thinking about, is that people as a whole have lost the ability to hear the only voice that matters: their own. As our civilization advances and society becomes larger and more powerful, it holds more and more sway over a given individual's thoughts. Influence isn't a bad thing, but the issue is that it has become so strong that it's drowning out the desires of a person. This issue has, over time, moved from causing people to forget how to listen to themselves, to people no longer learning how to listen to themselves to begin with. So I would like to put something here today for those who have forgotten, for those who did not learn. I open with the following poem.

'As I look out to blue yonder,

 I lay back and quietly ponder.

 Who could tell a cloud to sit and stay?

 And who would want to anyway?'

In life, there are many influences which alter our direction, or skew our decisions, such as the wind which drives a cloud. These influences are still important to listen to, but listening doesn't necessarily mean following. It is important that we gain the knowledge which these driving forces are steering us towards. But this pulling and pushing ultimately does not matter. The universe in its grand scheme of cause and effect, has already determined all that has happened. Everything that occurs, in essence, was determined at the exact moment of creation. Understanding this causes one to question; If everything's already determined, why bother? The answer is because your desires matter too. Your desires are what pull and push you in a given direction, so that you may interact with the rest of everything. If you surrender yourself to the Universe, it is to surrender yourself to the role you are to fulfill, and this is fine. However, to surrender yourself to society is not the same. We as creatures that live are all unique, and individual. It is that uniqueness that makes listening to our own feelings and desires so important. If we do not play the role that only we can play, who else can?

But how to listen? How to tune in to the radio station of your own being? The answer is not to think, it is to feel. To understand all desire, in all form, attractive or aversive, without prejudice. To feel the happiness that wells up within, or the sadness that dampens a sunny day. To feel these things as openly and fearlessly as one can. To feel everything within you that is you, driving you towards that which matters only to you. It is this that I feel is the simplest and purest way of explaining this concept.

I want to be blind

I was thinking recently that I want to spend a period of time (Month? Year?) blind, deaf, mute, or some combination between them. Not for some reason like feeling value in being impaired and not in being average. But instead because I would like to have the experience. I want to understand it. To feel it. I feel that I would grow from the experience. To me, this would be an amazing opportunity. Not in any safely escapable form, but as a definite form that cannot be resolved without expert assistance.

Some may question my reasoning. To those who do, I present to you a poem:

'I look upon all that I experience,

and I see it my own unique way.

A view forged by all that has happened,

used to view that which is happening.'

What I mean by this, is that everything I have ever done holds new meaning under any of an infinite number of other possible views. To venture beyond my own experience, and understand and accept a different experience, allows me to gain a new perspective. But that is not all that I gain. I gain the new perspective, as well as a judgment of it through my view. As well that I gain a judgement of my own perspective through using another. Again I gain but in the form of unison of the two views, interpreting experience present and past with both of the perspectives hand in hand. And as with any perspective gained, I gain knowledge of its counterperspective. A perspective formed of the exact opposite viewpoints; stark contrast to the viewing perspective.

So, what I wish to say is that, I wish to be blind, so that I may have a greater understanding of vision. I wish to be deaf, so that I may have a greater understanding of hearing. I wish to be mute, so that I may have a greater understanding of sounding. And with each new perspective and growth, I gain far more than just that perspective or growth alone.