Comments on: Descartes and the Buddha http://milindasquestions.com/2005/07/27/descartes-and-the-buddha/ a blog about meditation, Buddhism, the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, psychopharmacology, etc. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:50:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Victor Reppert http://milindasquestions.com/2005/07/27/descartes-and-the-buddha/#comment-15 Victor Reppert Mon, 05 Dec 2005 17:48:41 +0000 http://milindasquestions.com/?p=23#comment-15 Alan: At very long last, I wrote a response to this very interesting piece. Alan: At very long last, I wrote a response to this very interesting piece.

]]> By: david http://milindasquestions.com/2005/07/27/descartes-and-the-buddha/#comment-9 david Wed, 17 Aug 2005 06:24:56 +0000 http://milindasquestions.com/?p=23#comment-9 Huhmmm . . . interesting. Have you read Elaine Scarry _The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World_ 1985 OUP NYNY? She deals with exactly this stuff . . . pain, reality, etc. . . . but the pain she discusses most is the torture-induced stuff . . . not the kind caused by sitting in a particular way of your own volition . . . when I suffered an attack of shingles last year (a sort of pain generally described as among the worst possible for humans . . . even women who've delivered vaginally have told me this . . . that it's worse than parturition) and yes it was terrible . . . the worst I've ever felt . . . but the word "exquisite" I once heard or read used to describe the pain of shingles somehow took me over . . . I felt the pain was exquisite somehow . . . part of which involved my experiencing a certain unreality . . . that the pain was there and left me transfixed . . . but that it was somehow beautiful too . . . I needed no analgesics . . . but Scarry says the pain of torture is quite otherwise . . . (all I know is I feel a bit guilty . . . I always consider it funny that Scarry should write about pain when the word "scar" is embedded in her own name . . . but then again . . . this tendency of mine to focus on words . . . might be the very thing that made me feel my pain exquisite, and not just outright unbearable). Huhmmm . . . interesting.

Have you read Elaine Scarry _The Body in Pain:
The Making and Unmaking of the World_ 1985 OUP NYNY?

She deals with exactly this stuff . . . pain, reality, etc. . . . but the pain she discusses most is the torture-induced stuff . . . not the kind caused by sitting in a particular way of your own volition . . . when I suffered an attack of shingles last year (a sort of pain generally described as among the worst possible for humans . . . even women who’ve delivered vaginally have told me this . . . that it’s worse than parturition) and yes it was terrible . . . the worst I’ve ever felt . . . but the word “exquisite” I once heard or read used to describe the pain of shingles somehow took me over . . . I felt the pain was exquisite somehow . . . part of which involved my experiencing a certain unreality . . . that the pain was there and left me transfixed . . . but that it was somehow beautiful too . . . I needed no analgesics . . . but Scarry says the pain of torture is quite otherwise . . . (all I know is I feel a bit guilty . . . I always consider it funny that Scarry should write about pain when the word “scar” is embedded in her own name . . . but then again . . . this tendency of mine to focus on words . . . might be the very thing that made me feel my pain exquisite, and not just outright unbearable).

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