I saw this and had to reply (I know this is old and I’m sorry) but Jordan is wrong. There is no difference between external and internal pleasure it’s just pleasure. It’s a function of the brain. Everything is a stimulus that creates the release of chemicals that reward us for doing things. It’s literally all chemical reactions, it’s why those with depression experience anhedonia. It has nothing to do with compression of whatever,  not to mention that isn’t the purpose of intelligence.

pretty much all the research coming out now shows that the brain is responsible for everything, even “qualia” (which is debatable subject to begin with). Colorblindness is the brain. Also the brain creates color and sound. Sound is just pressure waves in the world but our brains convert that into sound. Light is just wavelengths of light but our brains create color. In short idealism can’t account for all this and has no data behind it. You only feel hot because you have a functioning nervous system, same with cold. Hot at cold are just the measurements of energy in a system. If you had a damaged nervous system then you wouldn’t feel these things.

It’s also very possible to think of something and be aware that you are thinking about it. Not only do I do this every day but everyone else too. That’s literally how imagination works.

so you are incorrect that idealism is more parsimonious (in fact there is a reason the philosophy dies out), materialism is more in line with the observations and evidence. Not that qualia suggests idealism anyway.

it’s also worth noting that what you’re describing is solipsism not idealism, though solipsism is the inevitable conclusion of idealism. one hole in your reasoning is that if the only thing there is what we perceive then by definition you aren’t responding to anyone, these are just words on a screen. How do you know someone wrote them?

Buddhism doesn’t care about either one though so it’s not the cornerstone of spirituality.