On pain and pleasure
Exceptions aside, our experiences can be generally classified into two broad categories – the painful and the pleasurable. All we feel are pain and pleasure, through different means and at varying intensities. Pain is something we tend to avoid, and pleasure is something we try to get more of. We generally consider the two as being opposites of each other.
Recently, over a plate of spicy chaat, I was struck by an anomaly in this classification. Is the taste of chilly a pain or a pleasure. It hurts the tongue for sure, but not too much. And everyone seems to like it that way. So it is a pain that gives us pleasure. We don’t avoid it. We actually stuff our roadside snacks with chilly and then proceed to stuff our mouths with those snacks until we can take it no more and have to get a drink of something cold.
Now consider the feeling of being tickled. It is pure torture. Fingers poke your sides or your armpits and you jump. The experience, when continuous, causes you to double up with laughter. But it is most definitely not pleasurable. I remember being in a state of continuous fright as a kid when around my elder cousins, who were prone to poke me in my side without warning. I went to great lengths to safeguard my ticklish parts.
Why is this so?
I don’t know. But I have a theory (as usual). I think pain and pleasure are essentially the same thing. If a little pain is pleasurable and a lot of pleasure is painful, then it probably stands to reason that we have in-built barriers against states of zero pain and absolute pleasure. Perhaps pain and pleasure are two ends of the same spectrum.
The Buddha succeeded in doing – making pain and pleasure the same. And that supposedly our aim or the purpose of this life so to speak.
meetu
25 Jan 10 at 2:25 pm
Technically, pain *does* induce pleasure. It’s because when you’re in pain, the body releases hormones called endorphins which heighten pleasure. Heck, the whole concept of BDSM is based around that fact. :p
Ankur Banerjee
25 Jan 10 at 5:02 pm
Believing in the theory of pain and pleasure while keeping life in mind actually never exists, its again senses which create a gap between needs and wants or we can say between perception and actuality. Taking life as journey/process does not make one realize this (difference of pain and pleasure) but looking towards life as pieces of destination makes one thirsty and that is how a want happens.
Its actually like highlighting this quote only: “karmanyevadhikaraste maa phaleshu kadachan”(Gita).
Pragya Modi
1 Feb 10 at 1:19 am
I appreciate your perspective towards pain and pleasure.Certainly attimes some pain are pleasurable and on the other hand so much of pleasure is painful.
Neha Bagoria
5 Mar 10 at 1:20 pm