Does pleasure = pain for everyone?
 

This might be karma, I'm not sure, but I'm just wondering if everybody experiences the same amount of pain and pleasure. Because I know that desire and suffering go hand in hand so I was thinking maybe pain and pleasure do as well. Of course the pain and pleasure everyone experiences is all relative, but I'm wondering if you guys think that in essence it is equal.

Erock

Do you mean physical pain and pleasure? It makes sense to me that they would be roughly equal, since they are so similar in many regards. But I wouldn't regard pain as "bad" and pleasure as "good" necessarily, since both may lead to a deeper pleasure.

No I didn't really mean physical pain. Just like pleasurable or painful moments. Do they add up to 0 in the end? That's the question really.

Erock

I don't understand karma very well, I admit, but I don't see why it would cause things to even out to zero. If everyone's experience adds up to zero, then would not everyone's actions have to add up to zero?

Hmm, degrees of pain vs. degrees of pleasure. I can't quantify my experiences because memories of pain and pleasure are different to the actual experience. I.e., it was either stronger or weaker than I remember it to be.

Still, I can guess, and my general feelings of contentment and well-being say that I experience more pleasure than I do pain. There's a fair amount of pain to be sure, but more pleasure.

This is actually quite a complex question because the centre - the '0' - keeps moving. Something that is horrendously painful the first time you experience it becomes less so with repeated exposure. Ditto for pleasure.

Thus someone born into extreme luxury has much greater potential for pain, because they will quickly become 'innoculated' for pleasure and any change from that level comfort would be painful.

Hmm, interesting...

The power to exert either pleasure or pain to yourself would challenge your postulation.

You could sit down and rub your temples for pleasure or hit yourself in the knee for pain whenever and wherever you want. If you believe things will 'balance out', then it would be up to the universe to bring you the balance to your own actions. Under that logic, if you wanted the universe to bring you something really pleasurable, then you could do something really painful to yourself and it would come.

Also, your interpretation of what is pleasurable and what is painful is different from someone elses, and may even be different from an earlier you, and a future you. The election of a politician to you may have been pleasurable, but to another painful. As your understanding of 'what is real to you' changes, that same election result now could be painful for you - but maybe pleasurable to another.

Pleasure and pain is depedent upon what you have defined as pleasurable or painful to you, and you have the power to change those definitions, if you so choose.

Yeah I just started thinking about it, because I was worrying a bunch about this project I had to do, and then when I completed it I felt really good.

Then I realized that if I hadn't made such a big deal about it, it wouldn't have felt that good to finish it. If I had been stoic basically.

Then I thought maybe that's how it works, the amount of mental pain you go through equals the amount of pleasure you feel. That might explain why some couple's relationships are so up and down, like a rollercoaster. Maybe subconsciously they like the drama (pain), because they know it will lead to making up (pleasure).

Just a thought
Erock

Hmmm... but if we didn't get more pleasure out than pain put in at least some of the time, wouldn't all of our endeavors be pointless? If nothing can be gained, you're at a constant zero. I think pleasure always takes effort, but that effort needn't always be painful. If you find the process of achieving a pleasure pleasurablee in itself, despite the work it takes, then you win all around.

That's why I was kind of getting at. If it all evens out in the end, it's better to be non-attached. If you choose to suffer, then your reward will be pleasure. I don't know maybe I'm reaching here, but...

Erock