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The shared fantasy of a “Dukkha-Free System.” The Sāṃkhya,
Jainism, and early Buddhism sales pitch By Bodhangkur 1. The Shared Fantasy: A System Without Pain Despite
their disagreements on metaphysics, ontology, and practice, Sāṃkhya, Jainism, and Buddhism
converge on a single therapeutic ideal: That a
perfectly functioning system would be free of dukkha (suffering). This is
not a metaphysical discovery; it is a wellness projection. Each
system begins with a pathological diagnosis: ·
Life, as ordinarily lived, is afflicted. ·
Suffering is not accidental but structural. ·
The highest good is the cessation of this
condition. Where
they differ is only what they blame and how they anesthetize (i.e. cure) it. 2. Sāṃkhya: Pain
as Ontological Contamination Diagnosis ·
Dukkha arises from misidentification: puruṣa (pure awareness) falsely entangled
with prakṛti (material processes). ·
Suffering is built into nature (prakṛti), which is restless, driven, unstable (guṇas). Fantasy (the pitch) ·
Liberation (kaivalya) = absolute
isolation of consciousness from process. ·
A final state where: o No affect arises o No change
touches awareness o No
feedback reaches the subject Procedural Critique From a
generative perspective: ·
This is not wellness, it is sensor disconnection. ·
A consciousness that receives no signal is not
enlightened—it is functionally unplugged. ·
Sāṃkhya mistakes
non-participation for optimization. It
proposes a static observer outside the system, which is impossible in
any real process ontology. 3. Jainism: Pain as Karmic Pollution Diagnosis ·
Dukkha results from karmic matter sticking to
the soul through action, intention, and embodiment. ·
Life itself is a contamination event. Fantasy ·
Liberation (kevala-jñāna)
= total karmic exhaustion. ·
Achieved through: o Radical
asceticism o Minimization
of action o Extreme
non-involvement The
liberated being becomes (the pitch): ·
Weightless ·
Motionless ·
Non-reactive ·
Pain-free Procedural Critique This is a
purity obsession, not a functional insight. ·
Jainism treats interaction itself as a defect. ·
But without interaction: o No
learning occurs o No
adaptation occurs o No system
persists A system
that eliminates all friction does not transcend reality—it exits it. Jainism’s
“dukkha-free system” is thermodynamically equivalent to zero throughput. 4. Buddhism: Pain as Cognitive Error Diagnosis ·
Dukkha arises from: o Craving (taṇhā) o Clinging
(upādāna) o Ignorance
(avijjā) ·
The world is unstable; suffering follows from
attachment to instability. Fantasy (the pitch) ·
Nirvāṇa is
described apophatically as: o Cessation o Cooling o Unbinding o The end
of suffering Although
more psychologically refined than Sāṃkhya
or Jainism, the goal is the same: A state
where the system no longer produces distress signals. Procedural Critique Here lies
the decisive error: ·
Buddhism confuses the alarm with the fire. Dukkha is
not a metaphysical curse—it is a regulatory signal. ·
Removing pain receptors instead of treating
infection ·
Achieving calm by disabling diagnostics Your
formulation is sharper: Dukkha is
an internally generated feedback signal indicating system malfunction. Buddhism
seeks to silence the signal, not repair the system. 5. The Hidden Assumption: Wellness = Absence of Pain All three
traditions share a pre-modern wellness ideology: ·
Pain is bad ·
Pleasure (rarely mention, never in Buddhism) is good
(or at least preferable) ·
The ideal system is one without discomfort This
assumption is biologically false. In every
functioning system: ·
Pain = error detection ·
Distress = boundary violation ·
Discomfort = adaptive signal A system
without negative feedback is: ·
Blind ·
Brittle ·
Doomed 6. Why the Fantasy (as cure all sales pitch) Was
Attractive Historically,
the “dukkha-free system” fantasy made sense because: ·
Life expectancy was low ·
Disease, famine, and violence were constant ·
Psychological distress had no technical remedies Spiritual
anesthesia became a cultural survival strategy. But it
remained: ·
Soteriological, not ontological ·
Therapeutic, not explanatory ·
Escapist, not generative 7. The Druid Finn’s Generative Procedure Monism: The
Adult Alternative Finn’s
framework dissolves the fantasy entirely: ·
There is no dukkha-free system ·
There are only: o Better-regulated
systems o Better-interpreted
signals o More
adaptive procedures Liberation
(moksha, functionally redefined) is not: ·
Escape from sensation ·
Exit from process ·
Silencing of alarms It is: The
capacity to resolve constraints such that distress naturally
subsides—temporarily, locally, contextually. No final
cure. Just procedural
competence. 8. Final Verdict The
ancient Indian ideal of a “Dukkha-Free System” is: ·
Ontologically impossible ·
Biologically incoherent ·
Procedurally sterile It is a wellness
fantasy born of suffering, not a theory of reality. Finn’s
reframing is decisive: Suffering
is not the problem. That is
not spirituality. And it is
long overdue. Schopenhauer: The Philosopher who tried to
shut off the Universe Why
Schopenhauer found the will but missed the procedure Suffering
as feedback, not fate |