Question

According to Schopenhauer our lives are a perpetual cycle of stress followed by boredom followed by more stress broken only temporarily by satisfactions or pleasures. First, how accurate a picture of the human condition is this stress/boredom cycle?

Second, how do you personally deal with the “Schopenhauer Cycle?” What works and what doesn’t work?

Third, is Schopenhauer’s solution feasible: we break out of this cycle with Knowledge, Art, or Compassion?
Other comments?

Answer 1

Schopenhauer could also be considered among those philosophers who propagated the pessimistic ideology of life. The values of existence had been challenged by his views. His ideas revolve around the fact that it is not possible to satisfy the will. There is no such goal or purpose that the will of a person wants to attain, and since there's no goal, there's no attainment and thus no satisfaction. His ideas of the boredom cycle stem from the same school of thought.

in my opinion, the painted picture of boredom is not very accurate. This cycle of boredom would only be accurate if humans had the complete desire to be aimless. Or if the human brain wouldn't want or need anything. But this could be easily refuted by maslow's hierarchy of needs. If not higher goals, humans could at least strive to work towards the basic physiological needs, and the moment this happens, the cycle of boredom gets broken.

in some cases a person might get overwhelmed by the tone of stimuli they have been facing, by the emotions. But, such can be controlled by a number of methods. The most essential being to be in touch with one's inner self and their inner light. This can be done by regular practice of mediation with the assistance of yoga.

Once, a person moves towards a greater goal, the goal of belongingness, security and towards self actualisation, they being wandering into the realms of knowledge. And knowledge feeds on the inner light to free a person from the cycle of boredom.