Hello Fellow Seekers of Pleasure (Including the Pleasures of Doing Good) ...
Can we use powerful sensations of bliss, joy, peace, contentment, emotional satisfaction, thrill, cosmic union, love, well-being, inner warmth, personal meaning, calm, health and happiness (whether induced by voluntarily consumed medication or fully informed bodily mediation or by voluntarily undertaken meditation) to lead people to be healthier, gentler, more loving and charitable, less violent and more empathetic toward the suffering of others?
I remind readers: My writings are based on the premise that certain medical, genetic and other technological developments ...
(1) are inevitable and coming anyway, cannot be halted, cannot be ignored;
(2) have a high chance of being misused by bad actors unless we use them in beneficial ways;
(3) can be shown to be effective and safe to use; and
(4) can be introduced in an ethical way respectful of individual free choice, civil and human rights ...
... and I ask, how should such technologies be best employed to heal some of what troubles this world??
I propose ...
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Just as some Buddhists savor the extreme bliss which results from Jhana states in deep meditation, thereupon enabling the practitioner to better abide by the Precepts, the Jhanic bliss provided by these “Precepts by Rx Prescription” will enable better, more ethical behavior. I say quite seriously that, if we can make doing charitable deeds as pleasurable to the brain as sex, we will all become founders of soup kitchens and orphanages.
Promises of bliss and heaven have always been used as expedient means (called “Upaya” in Buddhist lingo), tempting inducements to persuade and leave sentient beings better. After all, the old stories of Buddhism feature countless Bodhisattvas who did as much. A father in the Lotus Sutra lures his children out of a burning house with tempting piles of toys. Kannon poses as a beautiful woman, and sometimes a prostitute offering the lure of sex, in order to ween men away from the clutches of desire. Vimalakirti feigned illness in order to summon a spiritual gathering, playing on attendees' feelings of sorrow, obligation and guilt. Those were all Upaya, expedient means in service of a good cause. This is much the same, offering just another pile of toys.
I foresee substances that include their own antidotes, whereby highly pleasurable first reactions result in the individual’s being less enslaved and enraptured by the very same pleasures: Imagine a 'GOODdiva' chocolate, for example, incredibly tasty and satisfying, but which leaves the sweet-toothed less hooked on sweets and high calories ever after. There may be a special beer given to alcoholics, very delicious and extremely satisfying at first, but which eliminates all desire for future consumption of beer and all alcohol. The weakness in humans that Buddhism tries to cure, namely, attachments due to extreme desires, would itself be used as the lure to cure extreme cravings, and the pleasure itself would bring satiation of our excess desire for pleasure. It is something like a parent's allowing a child to eat as much candy as desired until they become sick and tired of candy.
Is there a danger of addiction to such substances? Even if so, it could be a good addiction, with kindly benevolence junkies looking for their next fix of helping elderly ladies cross the street. “Compassion addicts” would get “high” by housing the homeless, rather than becoming homeless themselves. Of course, we do not want people so addicted to the pleasures of these drugs that they become just another heroin to our heroines, producing people who clean the streets then lie in the gutter in passive tranquility, or steal like Robin Hood even if to help the poor, so hooked on charity that they forget to go to their regular jobs. The middle way must be taken here too, and only a moderate increase in the drive to be charitable is needed, not some thirst which becomes all consuming.
Yes, it is possible that some substances will be long-term addictive, but in this case, through a healthful and life enhancing dependence, much the same as our usual addictions to water to drink, nutrients in our diet, soap to wash, social companionship and clean air to breathe. People may feel inner cravings to take their pill each day, much as people now feel inner cravings to eat some sweets, take their vitamins, buy new shoes, watch a movie or to hug their spouse. That, in turn, will result in new kinds of behavior at home, new kinds of education, more healthful diets, new entertainments and media, and new products in the marketplace to accompany and reinforce the good habits. In the future, the engineered pleasures and benefits from these mental changes will themselves drive people to want to change in ways that nurture the very pleasures they are experiencing. In turn, the resulting new media content, educational focus, healthier foods, product offerings and home environments will reinforce the bodily changes in a supporting loop.
The key is to cross-wire the pleasure centers of the brain with the doing of good works and healthy lifestyles, much as we now get dopamine kicks from dumb games, dumber diets, online shopping and adult movies.
Buddhas in medicine bottles, Bodhisattvas sold at kiosks, the sweetness of saints in our sweet snacks. Our own hungers, addictions, and longings for pleasure will themselves be the cure for our excess hungers, harmful addictions, and insatiable longings for pleasure. The key difference from current addictions is that this an “eudaimonic epidemic” ** that will leave people and the world better. It will be the opposite of today, when so many people choose substances and activities, such as using methamphetamines, drinking to excess, or engaging in unsafe sex, that bring some temporary pleasure although detrimental to long-term health and harmful to life. Rather than meth addictions which turn users into broken people with broken smiles, there will be blissful addictions that cure meth addictions, making one more balanced in life, with healthier family relationships, better friends, gainful employ, shiny skin, and good teeth too! “Wisdom Wine” and “Compassion Cocktails” will leave us more sober, more stable, less prone to violence in the bar room. Lines will form in front of dispensaries for (and drones will deliver right to one’s door) our daily prescribed fix of feeling fine and acting finer.
** FOOTNOTE: Eudaimonia - a Greek word (εὐδαιμονία) referring to a state or condition of 'good spirit', often translated as 'happiness' ‘flourishing’ or 'well-being'. Aristotle, described eudaimonia as the highest human good to be achieved through ethics and political philosophy.
Citizens “turned on” by being nice, kind and generous, as much as someone might be turned on by sex, will demand nice, kind, and generous images in media as the “porn” they desire to trigger their pleasure: Men and women in hotel rooms will pay to watch images on the pay-per-view of cats being rescued from trees, and sales of game software involving competition to feed the hungry, rather than points for shooting up enemy soldiers, will go through the roof (with a portion of all sales donated to the humane society, funding schools or used to feed the hungry). Granted, we don’t want to overdo it, such that people are donating their heart and both kidneys to strangers while still alive. However, feeling some increased pleasure in the altruism of becoming an organ donor would certainly help donations (assuming sufficient artificial organs are not yet available by then).
And all this would be fully informed, medically supervised and voluntarily undertaken by the people, who will feel so good and even better in personal health and kind behavior.
But what if much of the population, in their market freedom and total discretion, their honored right to choose, decide not to partake despite the enticements? Does success depend on everyone joining in?
Not at all!
... (more on that next time) ...
Gassho, J
stlah
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