from Nick | by Nick

Scott wrote another post summarizing the comments A couple dozen jhana practitioners fight a half dozen skeptics, the jhana-ers agree it’s awesome and helpful but they don’t choose to do it that often, which breaks everyone’s model of how humans work t.co/CCeZBEyMMU t.co/nONQGHiOJD

Though it’s only surprising if you treat humans as pleasure maximizers, which in my opinion is wrong Pleasure craving is like water and thirst. The problem is people have a pleasure scarcity. When people have enough water they don’t seek it endlessly, same with pleasure t.co/bFM7K4rMZU

Importantly, the pleasure must be wholesome and reliable, so you can feel safe knowing it won’t go away, letting you relax into it. This pleasure nourishes and heals you. The “wireheading” narrative doesn’t match how humans actually work vs unwholesome pleasure is like saltwater t.co/YDFztZy1fl

Wholesome meaning it has relatively more buy-in from all parts of you. Versus say in most cases drinking alcohol some part of you knows it’s not good, even if some parts of it are good. Things can be more or less wholesome, contributing to the whole of you rather than just parts

I want to be clear that I don’t think jhana is the only wholesome pleasure, and I don’t think most people should do the jhanas! They’re just one tool. I basically think all the standard recs are wholesome — exercise, socializing, journaling etc. No single answer for everyone