Pain and pleasure may not be as distinct as common sense assumes. The purpose of both seems to be to draw one's attention. A simple example would be eating chi

Pain and pleasure may not be as distinct as common sense assumes. The purpose of both seems to be to draw one's attention. A simple example would be eating chilli which is painful the first time. After one has learnt to enjoy it then the experience becomes pleasurable. More controversially perhaps is when I stub my toe these days. Instead of yelling and hopping around the room I try to transfer as much of my attention to the affected toe as I possibly can. I won't say it feels exactly nice now but it's a heck of a lot better than when I was a kid trying to distract myself from the pain. It seems plausible that if one could get very proficient at paying attention then the experience might be comparable to a highly intense pleasure (a pleasure too intense to be comfortable, at least to begin with).