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https://forum.freecapitalists.org/t/new-member-read-this/18258
I am using the term “satisfaction” in the Epicurean/Misesean sense in which it is formally synonymous with the cessation of any desire or craving. I understand that the everday meaning of satisfaction is not synonymous with Nirvana.
In my understanding, Buddhism is a more extreme or absolute version of Epicurean philosophy which says exactly the same thing - it is yearning or desire which is the root cause of suffering because whenever yearning arises and it is not satisfied, it results in suffering. Elimination of yearning or desire eliminates the possibility of suffering. However, Epicurus took a more moderate view regarding the eliminatability of yearning and felt that complete or absolute cessation of yearning was impossible because it is the necessary impetus to action - if you do not yearn, you will cease to act and if you do not act, you will cease to live.
Also, I think both Epicurean and Buddhist philosophy miss just how much headroom there is on the positive side of the equation, i.e. the possibility of expanding one’s desires and attaining pleasure in the fulfillment of desires. Living this way in the modern environment (that is, not in the Ancestral Environment in which our ancestors evolved) is dangerous because there is a significant mismatch in many cases between what “feels right” and what is actually good for us. But, with the aid of study and discipline, I believe it is possible to overcome these hurdles and go beyond the conservative approach of Epicureanism/Buddhism to elimination of suffering and actually begin talking about flourishing, or the pleasure-filled life.
Clayton -