Octagon Of Joy

Play With The Eight Forms Of Pleasure

Don Pierce

Apr 29, 2025

∙ Paid

Photo by Rachel Claire, Pexels.com.

Key Assertions That Help To Summarize This Article:

Laughter creates the shortest bridge between two people.

Love sires all positive emotions: including liking something or somebody; feeling thankful, hopeful, trusting, eager, and enthusiastic; and feeling exultation, awe and bliss.

While religious fervor can certainly be a form of spiritual pleasure, what is really producing the pleasure is the feeling of being a part of or connected to something that is larger than one’s self.

Fulfillment comes from coming to terms with deep spiritual matters such as life; death; one’s place in the whole scheme of things; and being a part of something good, larger than one’s self, and divine.

Limiting your capacity to experience any one of the eight forms of pleasure will, in turn, limit your capacity to enjoy all the other delights just as cultivating your capacity to enjoy some of the more basic forms of pleasure—such as laughing or feeling buoyant—adds to your ability to heighten your response to more complicated forms of pleasure—such as sexuality.

The Pillars Of Happiness described previously apply to the eight forms of pleasure: primal, pain relief, elemental, mental, emotional, sensual, sexual, and spiritual. Without each of these forms of pleasure one will not have the steadfastness to endure the pilgrimage to Gladandgreen Junction. Instead of being carried forward by your pleasure, one will likely become weary, distracted, or disinterested. Without pleasure any endeavor becomes a tedious chore and the positive results are left to those who, instead of focusing on the languor and length of the pilgrimage, find some sort of delight in each step along the way.

Here are our substitutes for longueur (fatigue from lengthiness)––our ways to keep any pathway of growth from seeming to be protracted, dragged-out, or interminable: Primal pleasure is feeling good by going with the flow; walking on air; and feeling buoyant, elated, exulted, and high. Soothing aches and pains through therapeutic or emphatic touch is the pleasure of pain relief. Elemental pleasures include play, movement, and making pleasing sounds. Curiosity, the craving for information, and learning are all mental pleasures. Love, avoidance of fear, and moving away from threats as a result of anger are the components of emotional pleasure. Love moves one toward what promises emotional nourishment. Love sires all positive emotions: including liking something or somebody; feeling thankful, hopeful, trusting, eager, and enthusiastic; and feeling exultation, awe and bliss. One experiences sensual pleasures when one lingers over and enjoys a stimulus. Spiritual pleasures need not be limited to relating to God or cultivating the immortal Soul. While religious fervor can certainly be a form of spiritual pleasure, what is really producing the pleasure is the feeling of being a part of or connected to something that is larger than one’s self. Fulfillment comes from coming to terms with deep spiritual matters such as life; death; one’s place in the whole scheme of things; and being a part of something good, larger than one’s self, and divine.

Limiting your capacity to experience any one of the eight forms of pleasure will, in turn, limit your capacity to enjoy all the other delights. Also, cultivating your capacity to enjoy some of the more basic forms of pleasure—such as laughing or feeling buoyant—adds to your ability to heighten your response to more complicated forms of pleasure—such as sexuality.

Laughter creates the shortest bridge between two individuals. It does so because it brings forth the kind of joyousness that counters contempt and indignation. When you are sad you attract emptiness. When you are happy, the world laughs with you.

Photo by Visual Stories, Pixels.com.

HumaNatureConnect Activity

Assessing How You Are Supporting (Or Not Supporting) Your Pursuit Of Pleasure

For this activity, determine how you are using authenticity, courage, excitement, and challenge to support your pursuit of the eight forms of pleasure. Do so systematically by recreating the table shown below in your journal and filling in your responses.

Statement

Assess and write down how you are or how you are not supporting your pursuit of happiness with one or more of the eight forms of pleasure and their sub-categories, as listed below:

Pertaining to each statement, I do (or do not) support my deep pursuit of happiness with the Pleasure Pillar of Authenticity in the following ways:

Courage

Pertaining to each statement, I do (or do not) support my deep pursuit of happiness with the Pleasure Pillar of Courage in the following ways:

Excitement

Pertaining to each statement, I do (or do not) support my deep pursuit of happiness with the Pleasure Pillar of Excitement in the following ways:

Challenge

Pertaining to each statement, I do (or do not) support my deep pursuit of happiness with the Pleasure Pillar of Challenge in the following ways:

I experience primal pleasure by “going with the flow.”

I experience primal pleasure by, as the expression goes, “walking on air.”

I encounter primal pleasure by feeling buoyant.

I encounter primal pleasure by feeling elated, exalted, and/or high.

I experience the pleasure of pain relief by therapeutic or emphatic touch.

I come face to face with elemental pleasure through play.

I encounter elemental pleasure through movement.

I experience elemental pleasure through making pleasing sounds.

I encounter mental pleasure through learning.

I meet mental pleasure through curiosity.

I experience mental pleasure through craving information.

I meet emotional pleasure through love.

I encounter emotional pleasure through moving away from fear.

I experience emotional pleasure through moving away from threatening anger.

I encounter sensual pleasure by lingering over and enjoying a stimulus.

I experience spiritual pleasure by being a part of something good, bigger than myself, and/or divine.