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Originally posted by Beti ona
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I'm not familiar with David Pearce, but yes, that sounds like insanity, pure and simple.
I agree sort of with how you "choose to experience life", slightly different. Emotions are just "human ways of perceiving the universe", but the universe itself is not filled with emotions, value judgments, good and bad. The universe just IS -- it's a fact, and doesn't "give a shit" about your emotions (or on a more basic level, including animals, the universe "doesn't care" about pain or pleasure, hunger or satiety; those are simply methods of perceiving that animals developed in order to react to their environment, in ways that would "be life-promoting" or "be life-negating", for the most part).
Yes, pain is 100% part of life, and I personally agree with Bestia -- you can't really develop capacities, skills, or transcend to a higher level, without going through some pain -- or facing your fears (we are all born filled with fear, and then spend our lives trying to develop confidence/a sense of efficacy so we can no longer live in fear) -- or without putting effort into things (and "effort", itself, is experienced as "mild pain" -- focusing to read a book, straining to life a weight, pushing cardio and feeling legs burn and sweating -- all mild pain, until you acclimate to it, and then you learn to find pleasure in the discomfort).
So I agree with what a lot of modern psych and Buddhist thinking says -- the the "goal of life" is NOT to "live in a state of perpetual happiness" -- which is the infantile mindset of a child -- nor is it to intentionally subject yourself to endless pain and suffering. At best., the "goal in life" -- is to feel okay. Neutral. No huge problems that need to be fixed, no immediate pain to avoid. Animals in nature -- when they are not chasing prey or running from prey -- are "okay" -- neutral, at rest, no scared, not attacking.
You're correct, these days I would never get as fat as I did back in the day and feel good about it. I did it as a means to an end (to try to grow and gain mass faster) -- coupled with the fact that I didn't have a lifestyle that allowed me to do things in a non-extreme way (I was working so many hours per week, running off 3-4hrs sleep every night, for years -- while trying to grow -- because my ex-wife didn't work and didn't contribute). So rather than "under-do it" during my offseasons, I went hard in the opposite direction -- went way too hard with gaining body fat. Coupled with the fact that I had natural genetic tendencies to gain body fat very easily. But knowing that that was the case, I didn't let it bother me -- I saw it as a means to an end, just like doing a set of squats until I puked -- temporary discomfort for the sake of achieving my larger goal, and walking face-first into it as fearlessly as I could. (Older and wiser, no, of course I wouldn't do it the same way again -- but I would try to have the same Stoic mindset of accepting it.)
You are 100% spot on, "the false manipulation of things is the way that society has morphed into a fantasyland disconnected from reality" -- I couldn't have said it better myself, and it's a mantra I unfortunately have to repeat with many of my clients, almost daily.
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