Sati Center for Buddhist Studies

The widespread idea that Buddhism is against pleasure is a misunderstanding. Even whether it is against desire is debatable, but it is certainly not against feeling good. In fact, early Buddhism is built on (and not against) our natural tendency to avoid the painful and seek the pleasant, but in a way that harnesses it for the sake of liberation—it is a form of refined hedonism. This perspective, which we have lost sight of, can balance approaches to dharma practice that are excessively ‘rationalist’ or that double down on our tendency to focus on suffering and the negative. During this workshop Bernat Font will show that many models of progress to awakening share the same underlying ‘hedonic curve’ and explore how this can affect our understanding of the early Buddhist path as well as play out in our own practice.