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Why are there suffering beings in the first place?
Jeffrey
Veteran
Why are we here? I understand that it is better to just take care of our problems and not obsess over our origin... I've done that for years. But I still ponder the question like "hold on we are all trying to overcome suffering so how did it all start? Where did sentient beings come from?"
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Comments
I'm not going to even try to answer your question. But I would like to point out a couple of things:
You are asking, not obsessing.
You are asking a question that has been asked by most people at some time. You know, people like Lincoln and Einstein. This is just my opinion, but anyone who doesn't ask that question, isn't really thinking. They're just passively accepting.
@ Jeffrey
The Buddha, would say he taught of suffering's cause and the way to it's cessation
and that your question was not part of any of that.
The problem with questions of our origins is that understanding the answer requires the transcendence of the dream that the Buddha exhorted us to awaken from.
In short..Our identity construct (the dream) is the fundamental denial of the truth that it's answer illuminates
but..
outside of that dream, the questioner no longer gives credence to the dream's reference points of self and other needed to ask such a question.
Catch 22....
Hence the Buddha's answer.
Experience the cessation of suffering and you may understand why we suffer. Maybe it is to being us to that point?
If we didn't suffer it's unlikely for us to try and find a way out of this illusion. Hence all the stories I hear from you guys. Seems like the suffering g spurs the search for it's cessation?
But a great question, I often wonder why am I here? Why do I bother with life?
It's these questions that leads you inwards.
Metta
Why are we here?
Perhaps because of our good karma that we have done in a past life? It is perhaps a privilege to be human, because here we have the opportunity to become enlightened.
"We're here, because we're here, because we're here."
Oi dunno!
You know, I think when our minds acquired the ability to ask that question, that's when we became conscious. "I am here. OK, why am I here?"
How and why are we so attracted to the how and the why of things?
If we didn't suffer would we be content to just lie in the sun, eat and procreate?
I think we are explorers by our very nature with suffering less as our incentive.
That's just what I think now... That could change by the next time I'm asked to wonder about it.
Get used to it!
The answer is 34.
Nuff said.
No, it's 42. Surprised you didn't know that, @genkaku....
I think about it every so often What is the point of us living? Is there even a point? Does the fact we live and ponder all these points and then die mean anything at all? Sometimes, I'm not so sure. I think we want to be important, to have some grand thing we are working towards (enlightenment, heaven or whatever) to give our life meaning. But does it really? I'm not so sure we matter at all and maybe when it comes down to it that is part of the source of our suffering.
@federica -- Have you not consulted the Authentic Scroll of the Most Venerable Razzmatazz, blood kin of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the only true and unsullied guru of the universe?
Forsooth!!!!!!
Just a friendly reminder ... my relics can beat up your relics.
We are here because we fail to see the things as they are, coming from ignorance it triggers a domino effect on karma, conscious, mental, senses, contact, feeling etc.
Maybe there is no point, it just the way things are. causes and effects - now is the effect.
The good part is that impermanence works for us so nicely that we could learn to replace ignorance with wisdom, which is the source of reversing suffering.
Due to ignorance and feeling of 'lacking something' is reason of worry and unhappiness.
No, I subscribe to that Saner Lunatic (sadly-deceased yet libretically-immortal) Douglas Adams....The response was in his Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy (4 Books in all)....
Do you mean why does suffering exist in evolution (as something to avoid)? I see no reason why there should be reason behind evolution.
Where does sentience come from, again that is just a degree of complexity. Not really sure what you are asking?
My Indians friends say that the question "Why" is really of Western origin. They say that the Orientals ask "How is it?" and not about the Why of things.
"Why" assumes that there is a rationality, or something measurable in something like discrete units; whereas "how" inquires along the ways and perhaps meandering byways of how things occur or do not occur: plus their many ramifications. Therefore, the "how" is the more utilitarian, objective, and dependable line of inquiry for the Oriental. (In other words, “Why” implies a Creator-God or something along those lines that made everything to follow a rather simple, but elegant rational plan or REASON.) The Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu inquire how to overcome difficulties, and not so much why (“How come?”) those difficulties are there in the first place. You solve one problem and two or three new ones are created by your remedy. That's the structure of the universe, but not the substance.
The “How” is the mechanistic underbelly of things, whereas the “Why” is the rationale. Theists, of course, believe that there is a [single] reason behind the universe, whereas the traditions of the orient and the Deists of the 18th century did not necessarily subscribe to this notion.
Nevertheless, Truth is not One, but Two.
Substance exists, and in that All are One. But structure, the great matrix, being dual, always sees Two, The “Why” concerns itself with the nondual Subject, the Substance; whereas the How concerns itself with the objective, dualistic processes of organization, development and decay of structures.
If there is any reason for suffering I would think it to be to bring us closer to the Unity, to make us more compassionate towards others through our growing understanding brought on by our experience of our own suffering. Our suffering is a garden for growing compassion if we tend it right.
"Why are there suffering beings in the first place?"
"Dependant Origination"
(DependEnt. A dependAnt is a person who relies upon you to provide for them).
I'm not a Pedent, I'm a Ped_a_nt.
And there I was thinking I had spelt it right this time...Just goes to show, never trust your mind's thoughts they will deceive you every time .....
No, you had spelt it correctly - it was merely the incorrect form. Spelling was fine. Can't fault the spelling. Excellent spelling. Top hole. (And thank you for using 'spelt' and not 'spelled' ... pesky Americans get everywhere!)
Your wellcum
AAAAAAAARGH!!
This question reminds me of a conversation I had with my zen teacher.
Teacher: So, where do you come from?
Me: I'm from New Jersey
Teacher: No, that's where your body comes from, where do YOU come from?
Me: Umm, I don't know.
Teacher: Good answer!
Me: Ok, my turn. So, where do you come from?
Teacher: From the kitchen!
Me: lol
suffering is very real. it can be very prolonged thus becoming senseless. it can also exist when everything seems to be going your way. and it can have no explanation at-least no causation in this lifetime. and perhaps when you reach that spot you may start getting answers because you finally stop looking. you certainly have to go beyond the mind as we know it in the framework of current existence.
Suffering is a sign that you're out of touch with the truth. Suffering is given to you that you might open your eyes to the truth, that you might understand that there's falsehood somewhere, just as physical pain is given to you so you will understand that there is disease or illness somewhere. Suffering points out that there is falsehood somewhere. Suffering occurs when you clash with reality. When your illusions clash with reality when your falsehoods clash with the truth, then you have suffering. Otherwise there is no suffering.
Anthony de Mello
Formerly, Anurādha, and also now, I only teach suffering and the ending of suffering.
Anuradha Sutta
That sounds like talk of creator deities.
Oops, that wasn't a sutta but an opinion piece, sorry about that. Still a bit sleepy
Doesn't seem true with disease. Do you have a disease because you are out of touch with the truth?
I think that will be hard for me if I develop something painful. It will be tough to train myself not to suffer when in great physical pain.
You do the same annoying mistakes frequently. For instance, you start a new sentence with a small initial letter. Why? In this case "pesky" starts a new sentence. And why there is a space after the exclamation mark?
The three full stops are not full stops, they're elipses ... and appear within a sentence, therefore a capital P is not required.
Sometimes, putting a punctuation mark next to a bracket creates a smiley face.
However, it was a typographical error.
Thanks for pointing it out!
(Corrected.)
Expecting the body to be free of disease or not die puts one out of touch with reality. Growing old and having sickness IS reality. Get in touch with it. Resistance is futile and only causes suffering.
The illusion is to expect good health forever.
Ergo you have suffering because you are out of touch with the truth. Disease is not the problem. The escape is to realise that you are not the body for all that is born will die.
With metta