溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Does the Pleasure of the Body Have a Limit It Cannot Pass?
If pleasure is complete in the absence of pain — do I tell the craving that has no end from the satisfaction that stops once filled?
The limit of the magnitude of pleasure is the removal of all pain.
Epicurus' question — that pleasure has a limit — sits within the lineage split over desire and satisfaction. Epicurus held that once the natural and necessary desires are filled, the body is satisfied, and craving beyond that is vain. The Stoics went further, seeking to govern and extinguish desire itself. In the East, Laozi stood in the same place — "one who knows enough is rich." But an opposite lineage came to rule the modern age. Capitalism and advertising rest on the premise that desire has no limit and that new craving can be created endlessly. Does satisfaction have an end, or is desire infinite? The lineage split.
The more an age spurs endless consumption and new craving, the more this question — does the body's satisfaction have an end? — helps recover the place of enough.
The actual teaching of Epicurus, mistaken for hedonism, is unexpectedly near to temperance.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
The actual teaching of Epicurus, mistaken for hedonism, is unexpectedly near to temperance. The limit of pleasure is the state where pain is gone; beyond that, pleasure does not grow but only changes form. Once hunger is filled, that is enough, and piling on delicacies does not enlarge the pleasure itself. I read this question as demanding I tell endless craving from satisfaction that can be filled. Do I strain to fill more when I already have enough? Do I know that the body's satisfaction has an end? I stand before this question too.
✍️Your Answer
The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.
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