pleasure and pain

Hedonists believe that the pursuit of pleasure is the meaning of life. Even amoebas swim towards food and away from a drop of lemon juice. Can running away from pain and towards pleasure be what it's all about? Quite often we can enter a painful situation, knowing that there's a benefit to be gained from it. A parent will abandon their safety to save a child. Even this can be viewed like the case of the salmon swimming upstream against the current in order to spawn. This does tend to cloud the meaning of pleasure, and pain.

"Endless pleasure cannot challenge a man to self-examination." [Eugene Halliday]

When does an apparently endless pleasure end? 

The appetite for the pleasure of more refined sugar may eventually lead to certain types of diabetes. Perhaps unaware that it's the sugar consumption which has ultimately brought about the loss of sight, or surgical removal of a limb, vast quantities of pleasant, refined sugar may continue to be consumed. 

Alcohol is a solvent. There may be an increase in awareness of the fact that excessive alcohol consumption, in effect, dissolves the liver. Nevertheless, even this often does not bring about a change in its rate of consumption when cirrhosis sets in. One noted football celebrity continued with his pleasure of alcohol even after having a replacement liver. 

 In both these types of individual, and in others, there is an indication that a process of self-examination has been lacking. In conditions which creep up slowly, there is a tendency to continue in the same old way. 

Pain does raise awareness.

In the case of a tumour development in my body, after its surgical removal, I was considering an alternative approach to chemotherapy, but didn't really have any idea what course to take. My family urged me to go with chemo. I feel now that it was the right choice. Not because it was the appropriate treatment, but because I needed all the pain of so-called 'side-effects', including hearing loss, in order to provide the motivation and strict adherence to the protocol of my choice. I doubt that without it I would have had as much resolve.

The cultivation of seeing positives in every negative is a worthwhile pursuit. Not paying lip service to an idea. Feeling deeply into oneself, and seeing the value what's present in all experiences, even what is generally regarded as failure ... when you look for it.