Schopenhauer thought his pessimistic philosophy was similar to Buddhism. Negation of desire or denial of self is a tricky thing. You can see the issue here with this table (from the article): https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_...
It's not clear that someone who doesn't "grasp" would want to have sex...or to eat. That's the conclusion that Schopenhauer comes to: someone who is enlightened would just chill without being attached to anything (think Meursault not crying at his mother's funeral). Though it may avoid suffering, that state doesn't seem worth pursuing. Maybe temporarily.
Buddhists respond to that critique by making some distinction between "bad desire" and "good desire" (implicit in the table). But the line is unclear and the insightful kernel of Buddhist teaching is that desire, full stop, is what leads to suffering. Besides, Buddhist monks are ascetics, not programmers who dabble in meditation.
Buddhism makes a lot more sense as a cultural practice where you have the monks who are practicitions and the lay-people who give them alms. The idea, then, isn't that everyone pursue enlightenment. It's enough that some people are pursuing it and the general population supports them.
Schopenhauer thought his pessimistic philosophy was similar to Buddhism. Negation of desire or denial of self is a tricky thing. You can see the issue here with this table (from the article): https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_...
It's not clear that someone who doesn't "grasp" would want to have sex...or to eat. That's the conclusion that Schopenhauer comes to: someone who is enlightened would just chill without being attached to anything (think Meursault not crying at his mother's funeral). Though it may avoid suffering, that state doesn't seem worth pursuing. Maybe temporarily.
Buddhists respond to that critique by making some distinction between "bad desire" and "good desire" (implicit in the table). But the line is unclear and the insightful kernel of Buddhist teaching is that desire, full stop, is what leads to suffering. Besides, Buddhist monks are ascetics, not programmers who dabble in meditation.
Buddhism makes a lot more sense as a cultural practice where you have the monks who are practicitions and the lay-people who give them alms. The idea, then, isn't that everyone pursue enlightenment. It's enough that some people are pursuing it and the general population supports them.