Arthur Schopenhauer: The Two Things That Stop Us From Being Happy
Schopenhauer suggests that we leave behind our preoccupations with the world around us and instead retreat to the world of thought and create inward wealth. Well, he doesn’t necessarily suggest that physical pain can be escaped in the mind, but he does make the case that we can break the shackles of boredom, at least, with thought.
By ignoring the external world and the associations we have in it with pleasure and pain, he argues that we can somehow leave behind this pleasure/pain axis altogether within the mind. And this, perhaps, is where Schopenhauer sounds better on paper than in real life.
A better solution, maybe, is to create inward wealth by cultivating a more holistic mind/body connection, where you pay just as much attention to the body as you do to your thoughts.
In many cases of pain and boredom, when it is thought which augments the dissatisfaction, observing the body and the sensations on it, without attaching yourself to them as thought does, you can see the ever-changing nature of the affect that you are experiencing.
Very few people consciously spend time in their body, experiencing movements and feelings that arise, but when it’s done with intention, it can be just as therapeutic as a mental escape.
It reminds you there is more to what you experience on a daily basis than whatever it is that boils to the surface. By default, we don’t think about being in our body because we have automated the parts of our awareness that consciously pay attention to it, and it’s precisely for this reason that getting in touch with that awareness can point us in a new direction.
What I have to add to this is that there is a third option. There is a path that is free from both pain and boredom. In most things in life the is this middle way, the new dimension, the path of transcendence. If we get used to a pleasure to the point of not feeling pleasure regarding it (owning an old mobile phone or watching an old cartoon) or we get bored so much that even pain seem like a better option, we have stuck ourselves in an Ouroboros. Whenever you see two options going in different direction, you could very well e overlooking a middle path of transcendence.
Between Pain and Pleasure There is The Undisturbed Face of Equanimity
With no beginning and no end...Indivisible, equal to allNothing and yet Everything...Shiva is in all of usEyes closed He watchesTime at his commandGod of Gods... loneliest of them allThe Universe, his exhibitNothing and yet Everything...Shiva is in all of usHe is for Ram, as well as RavanHe is for Life, as well as DeathHe is Chaos and the OrderFor the ignorant, He is wisdomBeyond pain, above wounds...Courage in battle, Peace at homeEnd of all troubles...The strike of this innocent being is lethalNothing and yet Everything...
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"get bored so much that even pain seem like a better option": I have never thought about it