Schopenhauer seems to take the idea that “ignorance is bliss” further by contending that knowledge, or consciousness, is suffering; and the greater the knowledge, the greater the suffering; that life sucks, and so to be conscious of life is to necessarily suffer. It is the difference between wanting something and knowing that you want it. If you know you want it, you know if you get it or not, and if you do not, or even if you do, it will not make you happy, because you are conscious of the wanting, the will, which, says Schopenhauer, is eternal, never-ending.
It is important here to point out that Schopenhauer seems to equate desire with will, that (to him) will is desire and desire is will, and he is talking about being aware of that will, of that desire. And to be conscious of that will-desire is to be doomed to eternal disappointment. Thus, there is a distinction to be made between willing, and being aware of that will. A plant can be said to will towards, or desire to reach for, the sun, but not to be conscious of it. So, consciousness is never-ending suffering, for man is never satisfied with what he has, he always desires more, or something else. From this hell, the “intelligent,” conscious man can never escape.
So, like the Buddha, Schopenhauer points out that desire inevitably leads to suffering. But while Schopenhauer is a pessimist and believes that this is an eternal, natural, inescapable condition of life, especially the conscious life, the Buddha teaches that to truly be “conscious,” to truly awaken (which is, I think, a better, more accurate word-concept) is, in fact, the only way to end suffering. The Buddha points out that consciousness does not equal “awakened.” One can be conscious but live in a world of illusion—one is only aware of the illusions of one’s conditioned existence; or, conversely, one can be conscious of things as they really are, which is to be “awakened.” It is sort of a matter of degree; but, maybe it is a matter of consciousness vs. true consciousness. Consciousness is passive, it takes no effort, but awakening to true consciousness is active and takes effort. The Buddha says that one can transcend selfish desire and only by doing so can he/she be happy. In this way, Buddhadharma can be seen as utterly optimistic, as I see it.
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From my personal notes, 11/16/99.
