[Buddha-l] Was the Buddha mentally ill?

[Richard Hayes]

On Jul 26, 2010, at 9:20, Joy Vriens <joy.vriens at gmail.com> wrote:

> What does DSH4 consider "normally pleasurable activities"?

My mistake. The manual is DSM4. Any activity that one routinely enjoyed in the past but that no longer gives one pleasure is what is meant, or so it was explained to me. 

> But enjoying one's own
> unplugged, unwireless company, peace and quiet is no longer considered a
> normally pleasurable activity.

If that is something you routinely enjoy, then it is so considered. If that and most other things you routinely enjoy stopped giving you pleasure, then you might be characterized as anhedonic. 

> You make doctor Buddhaghosa sound like Dale Carnegie or the average
> therapist with his brightly lighted rooms, beautifully colored flowers and
> easy-listening music.

I don't make him sound any way at all. I simply report what he wrote. (It used to give you pleasure when I quoted Buddhaghosa.)

It used to give me pleasure to write ironically. Now that I find fewer and fewer people knowing how to distinguish between irony ore and fool's gold, I get less pleasure from being satirical. Perhaps I'm growing anhedonic in my anecdotage. 

Richard