So I'm intrigued by the Buddhist theory of discontentment, that it falls into three categories: Actual pain (getting poked in the eye with a dessert fork); the diminishment of pain, which we mistake for pleasure (eating a good meal but overeating until you're miserable and all that food ends up as shit, anyway); and pervasive conditioning (I have no idea what this entails and I'm too lazy to study it further at the moment. More will be revealed! Stay tuned for highlights of next week's show where the effects of karma and afflictive emotions are revealed in the shocking season finale!!)
"What we usually experience as pleasure is mostly a diminishment of pain. If good food or drink, for example, really were just pleasurable - if they had an inner nature of pleasure - then no matter how much we ate or drank, we would feel greater and greater happiness in equal measure." The Dali Lama
The more we study different religions and philosophies the more we see how Alcoholics Anonymous is really nothing more than a clever, insightful repackage of ancient spiritual beliefs in a form that resonates with problem drinkers. I've heard Bill W characterized as a Social Architect - a man who combined elements of philosophy, religion, medicine, and social science into a workable formula for the recovery from substance abuse.
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