Kotowaza of the day: Just ask the sadomasochist
- Japanese:
- 楽は苦の種 苦は楽の種
- Romanized:
- Raku wa ku no tane, ku wa raku no tane
- Meaning of Japanese:
- Pleasure is the seed of suffering, and suffering the seed of pleasure
Pain is born of pleasure; pleasure is born of pain - English equivalents:
- No pleasure without pain
No pain no gain
Sweet is pleasure after pain
No rose without a thorn
posted @ 02:50 by eBohn - permalink
2 Blogger comments
2 Comments:
I concur with Dave. This is a cool feature. This kotowaza is interesting to me b/c of its contrast with Epicurus' steady-state hedonism. Epicurus thought the goal of life was to avoid intense pleasure and intense pain, that pleasure is defined as the absence of pain. This kotowaza (and its English equivalents) seem to take the opposite view. I'm not sure Epicurus is correct, but I think his view is not considered very often, at least not in an open and explicit manner.
Cool. I'm glad people are digging the kotowaza. I guess it wasn't just for my benefit after all.
Safety.Neal, was Epicurus a Buddhist?
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