i-2
Explanation
This comic uses the recurring SMBC format of a student seeking wisdom from a "wise master" on a mountaintop. The student asks how to achieve internal peace. The master gives the classic spiritual answer: "First, you must let go of the self." But the student pushes back — "Can you even hear the goddamned words you're saying?" — pointing out that wanting peace is itself a desire of the self, so the instruction is paradoxical.
The student then articulates what they actually want: not some abstract dissolution of ego, but rather "to be an experiencing, sensing, thinking being that feels good, has a sense of purpose and meaning, and I want it now." The master's response — "Have you tried liquor?" — is a deadpan deflection that's simultaneously a joke and an uncomfortably honest answer. The final panel has the student respond: "Truly, you are a wise master."
The comic skewers the self-help and spiritual guidance industry by highlighting the fundamental contradiction in most meditative or spiritual traditions: they ask you to dissolve the very self that's seeking improvement. The student's blunt restatement of what people actually mean when they say they want "inner peace" — they want to feel good, have purpose, and get it quickly — strips away the mystical language to reveal ordinary human desires. The master's suggestion of alcohol is funny because it's the crudest, most direct chemical shortcut to the feeling the student described, and the student's grateful acceptance suggests that perhaps the "wisdom" people seek is really just permission to take the easy route.