Of course, the rejection of hedonism is not exclusively western. The Buddhists had their own tradition of puritanism, exemplified in the Japanese tale Dojoji . It contains a parable in which a man pursued by the tiger of karma falls into the well of hell. Clinging to a tuft of grass, he watches as two rats nibble away at his momentary security like time itself. However, the tale says the droplets of the sweet dew of pleasure, falling from a tree branch above, make him forget the situation he is in.
Pleasure is but a veil of illusion hiding the real story of life.
While we may know the truth of such a parable, and we may even advocate its prescriptions, we as aesthetes have become the man hanging by the tuft of grass. But the story for us is not simply that we find solace in the lie that comes with the dew. Rather beyond the lie of the dew, our look into oblivion intensifies a truth found in the dew's beauty and pleasure. So as not to feel Time's horrible burden that breaks your shoulders and bows you down, you must get drunk without ceasing. With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you choose.