Oct 16, 2017 07:41 PM
(Oct 15, 2017 06:04 PM)Leigha Wrote: [ -> ]In Buddhism, a central thought is that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. In other words, we can choose to suffer. I've always thought that idea was a bit out there, considering that we have an idea of suffering not being optional. To stub our toe on the bed post would cause inevitable pain, but if I lay in bed all day crying over it...would that be more about me choosing to suffer? There might be another person who stubs their toe, and they cry out in pain for a few moments, and then move on with their day. I'm choosing a simple example, but this could be why some people wallow away in self pity over issues that others rise above, and still have a positive, productive life. An example would be someone who was born with no legs, but through much therapy, and new advances in technology, they wear prosthetic limbs, and run marathons. But, maybe someone else who was born without limbs, remains bed ridden, angry...wondering why they were given such a bad deal. I understand your points, but what do you think about this?
Everybody struggles, and we all suffer to some extent, but it doesn’t always make one wise. I could be wrong but I think this comes from religious concepts where people see suffering as a divine necessity. What did Hitchens say, “…a cult that promoted suffering?”
When I was kid, I had a friend, Carl. He lost one of his legs in an accident. The only time that I ever thought about it was when his limitations spoiled our adventures. There was this mountain that was pretty far away. I wanted to see what was there. I convinced him to go with me. He thought it was too far for him to walk but I promised to help him. On the way back, it started to get dark and scary. When we started running, his prosthetic leg came off. I couldn’t figure out how to buckle it back on. We stopped at my house first because it was closer. We asked my mother to help us but she couldn’t figure it out either. She started crying. At first, we thought that she was just worried about us because we were gone for so long, but as it turned out, she was crying because she felt sorry for him. That never even dawned on us. She drove us down to his house and apologized on my behalf. I thought his parents were going to be angry because I had talked him into going with me, but they weren’t. They showed me how to buckle his leg back on. You wouldn’t believe some of the contraptions that we invented over the years to help Carl, but not because we felt sorry for him. It was because we were bored and lonely, and we wanted him to play with us.
There’s a family that lives near me. They were trying to escape the recent Northern California fires. Both the mother and the daughter has sustained 60% burns on their bodies. The father 40%. Their daughter just had to have both of her legs amputated below the knee. Their son is dead but no one has told them yet. They didn’t have home insurance. They lost everything they owned.
The suicide rates clearly show that life can give some people more than they can bare, but I don’t think it’s the physical or mental struggles that push people over the edge. I think it’s our mete-perceptions—our social desirability. They feel like a burden, unaccepted, and unwanted.
I think it’s important to define your own happiness, search for the things that you find interesting and meaningful, and learn to identify with the world through your eyes, and not the other way around.
When we learn that the Easter bunny doesn’t lay colored eggs, that Santa isn’t an all seeing gifter, that gods are created in the images of men to protect oneself from uncertainty. Eventually, truth prevails—seeps in little by little. It shines a light onto human concepts and illusions, strips us of all our values, but what happens when we look into the abyss? We can’t see past the horizon. The earth will eventually become a fiery furnace but the philosophical concept of nothingness does not exist. God may be dead, but not humanity, at least not yet.
What do we do? Turn back to illusions? No, we turn back to the world, find something that we can value—something real. We learn that the little things aren’t so little. That’s one of the nice things about fairies, isn’t it, wegs? They remind us of the small things—little aesthetic gratifications, where we are rewarded for just being. As children, we sought refuge in adventure, noticed all of these things, but as we grow up, we forget—become numb.
Happiness is transient just like everything else. If all of your goals were met, and all of views were recognized, praised, and accepted, would you live happily ever after? No, because it’s not the acquisition that makes us happy, it’s the adventure itself. Fulfillment is an illusion. Our development path is a continual process.
Like B.J. Miller said, so much of it comes down to loving our time by way of the senses, by way of the body—the very thing doing the living and the dying.
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