it probably isn’t a specific philosophy since it isn’t really ascetic in nature, which is a hallmark of the “no attachment” philosophies. seems to just be a society-makes-us-miserable-so-go-live-in-the-woods + wealth thing.

Cuddlywhiskers is dabbling in a kind of simplified and superficial Hollywoo version of “Eastern Wisdom.” Forsake attachments, live simply, etc. Pretty easy to do at your private country retreat.

IMO it’s sort of one or two rungs up from Bojack’s self-help podcast.

There’s a core of truth to what he’s saying. You have to acknowledge your misery and choose happiness. But I don’t get the impression he’s really digging any deeper than that.

There are many paths to happiness, but you have to be willing to take the steps. Cuddlywhiskers is just making his way down his path the best he can, like anybody else.

Leaving everything behind that you’ve spent so long stressing about, and learning to be happy with just existing. That’s sort of what I got from him.

Basically, it’s to be willing to really look at yourself and identify and acknowledge what makes you unhappy, find what makes you happy, live for yourself, don’t be the reason you aren’t happy.

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Obviously the man was rich and had the means to retire to a yurt and live peacefully and not everyone can do something so drastic, but you can still look inward and really reflect on what makes you happy and strive for it.

This scene was always a little mysterious to me too. I’m not sure what the writers’ attitude is toward Cuddlywhiskers. Diane, who is often (but not always) the voice of reason, and a surrogate for the writers, calls him selfish. But Diane herself only finds happiness when she stops trying to save the world and starts focusing on her own problems. So I suspect the writers are endorsing Cuddlywinks, but it is a little ambiguous.

Be selfish, unabashedly so. Pursue your happiness, you’ll become your best self, and be the best in the universe that you can. Unless you’re truly evil (like Bojack is a lot of the time), being selfish is the path to enlightenment.

Diane is right when she calls him selfish, but she doesn’t know why yet

The way I understood it is that you are first and foremost responsible for your own happiness. No one else is going to be responsible for your happiness, and at the same time other people’s happiness comes second to yours.

Now at first that might sound selfish and borderline “fuck you I got mine”. But I think the message is more “you won’t ever be happy if you don’t look into yourself, see what it is that is preventing you from being happy, and working to change that before you can do anything else, for yourself and for others”.

I had difficulty with this scene on my first watch, and still do, but I think I get it a little more today than when the episode aired.

Others have said he seems to have some kinda non-specific eastern philosophy going on, but I think it’s specific. He’s a Taoist. Taoist don’t necessarily believe in asceticism, him enjoying his accumulated wealth isn’t contradictory. And he says something that’s lifted pretty straight out of the philosophy. Taoist say “if a man tells you he can teach you the Tao, he does not know it.” When Dianne ask if he doesn’t think what he’s doing is a little selfish, he says “I don’t know what to tell you.” Before giving his speech about finding peace. He’s acknowledging his words will have little, if any, value to the listeners, and he never claims to be enlightened, just happy.

Taoism isn’t a selfish philosophy but it is inherently self centered, and more proactive than most eastern philosophies. There is an element of acceptance, but you also should change everything you can that’s making you unhappy, even when it’s a hard choice.

We can (and I am tempted to) disregard cuddlywhisker’s advice as privileged, he has not only money but a lifetime of accomplishment to look back on. But Dianne eventually takes it, and realizes there is no point to trying to do good if it makes you unhappy.

To take it to a much less privileged place, I heard an interview the other day with a chip manufacturing technician in china. A lot of these people are migrant workers, the company will provide you sleeping quarters so it makes more sense to just have your family stay in an area with a lower cost of living while you send money home. He was the most unhappy sounding person I have ever heard. He only got to go home once a year, his wife resented how lonely her life was, and his 4 year old son refused to call him father, because that’s what he called his uncle who helped look after him. Yeah he can’t just retire, but he could say “fuck it” to everything about his current life, and he would probably be happier. Even after hearing the interview, a lot of people would say that would be an incredibly selfish thing to do. Certainly people who know him in real life would say so, the same ones who tell him he’s admirable for doing it in the first place. But I personally wouldn’t judge him in the least. And the hard part wouldn’t be walking away, the hard part would be accepting how it will change how others view him, and still managing to find something that made him happier afterwards. Maybe start over somewhere new, start a new family with someone who wouldn’t demand so much self sacrifice, or simply enjoy the company of those around him and find fulfillment in that.

Taoism isn’t ABOUT walking away from you’re responsibilities, but if it’s a part of it for you than you have to take that leap. Cuddlywhiskers has a short path to happiness available to him, he takes it, and refuses to feel bad about it. If I met the guy in real life I would probably think he’s kind of a smug asshat. But the thing is he wouldn’t care. That’s a hard place to get to for anyone.

“If you’re rich you can just fuck off to your country estate and ignore everything. Money buys freedom which leads to happiness.”

What is Mr Cuddlywhiskers advising? Give up everything and go live in a yurt?

Pretty much. It’s kind of in the same vein as Buddhist philosophy. A major tenet of which is to end suffering you have to crush desire. Him talking about everything being meaningless is also related to buddhism.

A lot of people (but not all) who are very successful are also very unhappy. In fact that’s why they’re successful. If you’re satisfied with your life, why are you going to do the work it takes and go through all the struggles nessecary to be at the top? Elon Musk and Donald Trump don’t seem like they’re actually happy that much.

Desire is like hunger, it is unpleasant to encourage you to do something, in the case of hunger eat, and in the case of desire work or suffer to gain something.

So Cuddlywhiskers basically gave up wanting anything, fame, success, even trying to help people.

He seems to be the only truly happy person in the show

Just because a character says something doesn’t mean it’s true. If Nadia the whale died recently it means he only recently started living in the yurt. Maybe he is happy, maybe he’ll get bored in a week and go back to doing things. I’m not sure the showrunners are saying “Cuddlywhiskers is right and we should all live that way” That’s not how the characters end up or how the writers all live.

One thing I’ve heard about nirvana/enlightenment, a concept in Buddhism that basically means completely crushing desire and being content, is "Enlightenment is the closest thing to being dead while still being alive.

I like a lot of Buddhist philosophy and find it useful, but I think it’s wrong in thinking all suffering is bad. You wanna be free of pain? Ok I guess, but some of the best meals of my life have been when I was really hungry.

Maybe I want to suffer.

But I also think it’s true that a lot of people make themselves dissatisfied chasing things. Comparison is the death of joy.

You probably live better than a lot of kings in history. Running water in your home? AC? Nearly every song ever written on demand?

Alexander the Great never had any of that.

People were happy 10,000 years ago before having a Lamborghini or winning an Oscar or traveling the world were even possible. For anyone.

Imo, if you can’t be happy sitting around a fire with good friends and a full stomach, you’re doing it wrong.

It’s one of my fave quotes and recently gave me the courage to end a toxic friendship.

My take on it wasn’t to literally give up everything. But to give up the things that make you unhappy.

It’s not realistic because some people can’t give up their jobs they hate or leave family they don’t like .

But certainly you can can look inward at the things that truly make you miserable and start to make some positive changes

He’s not trying to “advise” anyone else to do anything or live a certain way. He’s trying to convince himself that he’s not feeling guilty or lonely or miserable through Zen Buddhist cosplay.

i think that his core message was to be selfishly happy if you have to. even if it can inconvenience others, even if it’s not the way that people usually do things, just focus on being happy.