It’s not the magnitude that repulse me, it’s direction. Well, I think I could accept the death of some little fraction of myself in exchange for a lot less suffering for the rest (with a lot of caveats), but “let go of desire” is never (I think?) presented as an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice, it’s presented as something good.
I don’t think you need to take any of the Buddhist claims seriously, just do your own investigation. I think it’s much closer to something like ‘people take instrumental goals as terminal, then twist themselves into knots over this error’.
It’s not the magnitude that repulse me, it’s direction. Well, I think I could accept the death of some little fraction of myself in exchange for a lot less suffering for the rest (with a lot of caveats), but “let go of desire” is never (I think?) presented as an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice, it’s presented as something good.
I don’t think you need to take any of the Buddhist claims seriously, just do your own investigation. I think it’s much closer to something like ‘people take instrumental goals as terminal, then twist themselves into knots over this error’.
It’s a sacrifice.