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Life without sorrow
betaboy
Veteran
Dukkha is central to Buddhist thought - all life is suffering. That was the Buddha's observation. But he made this observation a long time ago, a time when people didn't have comforts, proper medicine, etc. But as the world develops technologically, shouldn't these 'dukkha inducing' problems become irrelevant? Imagine a Star Trek kind of future - no poverty, wars, etc. Then wouldn't Buddhism be proven wrong?
Just food for thought.
Just food for thought.
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Comments
Why? The life of such a god (in Buddhist thought) is very, very, long, but not eternal. It ends.
All phenomena have the three characteristics of being impermanent, not-ultimately-satisfactory, and not-self.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_marks_of_existence
Dukkha has meanings of unsatisfactory, incomplete etc. It does not mean life is miserable. Far from it. Many people who have wonderful lives are never satisfied and would like to continue indefinitely. No matter how wonderful their life, it still has elements that are based on dukkha.
Dukkha is the first certainty. Uncertain as it what it means and entails? Well that temporary condition can be remedied until you bring this question up . . . yet again?
http://buddhism.about.com/od/abuddhistglossary/g/dukkhadef.htm
That is the amazing point of the teachings of the Buddha, 2600 years later they still describe the human condition, and 2600 years from now they still will, unless we all become robots or something like that.
also please never think that the buddha said "life is suffering", the first noble truth is that there is dukkha in life(caused by us, and can be stopped by us), and the next truths show the cause, the way out, and the path leading to the way out, of living a life mired in Dukkha.
These are the voyages of the Starship, NewBuddhist Enterprise
It's long suffering mission
To explore strange new whirls
To seek out new Sangha and new Dharma
To Buddhaly go where Nothing has gone before . . .
Without suffering, would there
be a cause for
us to
be
?
Thinking there is something to control is suffering.
IMO ...Sufferings cessation is about
transcendence, not acquisition.
That is IMO, as is the idea that sorrow is regret at things done wrongly or not at all.
While the Stoic method is very different from Buddhism, they agree on this point: It isn't what happens to you, but how you approach what happens to you which is important. It's the same old mistake we repeat thinking "Oh if things were only like that instead of this" depending on circumstance to magically solve dukkha.
Rather, it is up to oneself to learn how to participate in life fully-- passively accepting some kind of panacea won't eliminate dukkha. That's why the Buddha said one should be a lamp unto oneself-- the "answer" isn't "out there somewhere." Technology, like all things, has its pros and its cons. But there are no technological solutions to metaphysical problems. That is up to oneself to discover. Or not.
Therefore, all mental suffering arises from the mind!
So, if and when the time comes where there is no wars and everything is at peace, that doesnt mean your mind will be at peace.
You could have all the money, food and peace in the world but still suffer...
So i guess the buddhist practice will always be helpful, even in our star trek future!
And in every one, there are only two possible outcomes. Either people's minds are swimming in drugs that keep them on a permanent state of happiness and bliss no matter what terrible things happen around them, or people discover this so-called utopia is a trap and their humanity struggles to escape from their dull lives.
See, it isn't just suffering is caused by desires and so if we meet the desires, suffering disappears. It's that our minds have conflicting desires. We want stability and comfort but also need adventure and excitement. Give someone all the stability they desire in their life and they screw it up due to their desire for excitement and something new. That's why people get married and then have affairs. Two conflicting desires. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. People are, quite frankly, designed to not be satisfied with what they have no matter what it is. Fame and fortune? Get fame and then be miserable because you don't have privacy. And so on. So how do we completely fulfill both conflicting desires at the same time? We cannot.
Of course in any such school, my depression would outstrip yours by a mile... sort of an enlightened depression. Someone's gotta lead the parade and it might as well be me.
I prefer to forgo this parade and look to the Joy in life, myself.
Try dealing with the reality around you personally, day by day rather than launching yourself into grand thesis on behalf of buddhism say... what purpose is served by proving everything wrong, or right for that matter?
So that being said is a zombie really experiencing tanha or is it a base instinctual thing? I suppose it may depend on the type of zombie, between the reanimated dead type of the still alive raging virus type.
And since we're already far off on a tangent, is killing zombies a break of the non harming precept? Is the zombie a "sentient being"? I suppose if the zombie apoc happened i would give metta as i was dispatching them lol. Interesting debates.
Only to be replaced by other nasty/incurable diseases.
There are diseases today that a scant century ago were killing or crippling people all over the world. We don't give them a second thought, today. How many people have you heard of, lately, getting Polio, or Smallpox, or dying from the flu?
That would be nice, but then all of us Tibetan Buddhists wouldn't have anything to do with all the fancy-schmancy practice doo-dads we've collected over the years. Seriously, if all I had to do was drop a tab, and POOF, dukkha ceases, WTF am I supposed to do with the Damaru in my practice room?
:eek:
PS. My father proved the point: In the back of a walk-in closet, he had a collection of what seemed to be hundreds of neckties saved up over the years. Some were narrow, some medium-wide and some wide. He was, as you may imagine, always in fashion.
PS. My father proved the point: In the back of a walk-in closet, he had a collection of what seemed to be hundreds of neckties saved up over the years. Some were narrow, some medium-wide and some wide. He was, as you may imagine, always in fashion.
Whew! There's a relief! I was starting to suffer due to anxiety over what to do with my Damaru, post-dukkha.
It's so true, I'm sure that sometime after science cures dukkha, that another use will be found for Damarus especially those skull-bone Damarus that Chod practitioners use. Fashion - could that be a new practice to bring about the cessation of suffering from having a house full of useless crap? But wait ..... technology already has a cure - dynamite! And weather - as people in Illinoise learned last Sunday.
Sure, they could invent some kind of drug or genetically modify people to create a state of eternal bliss or contentment. But if and when that happens, we'll be humans no more. Buddha talked about humans.
(Huxley's book "Brave New World" explores just such a possibility. Highly recommend it).
When I almost cried because I couldn't lift a 1 lb dumbell after shoulder surgery, and I used to do side raises with 35 lb dumbells, I thought of this guy. He lost his arms after being electrocuted working on electrical lines.
http://buddhism.about.com/b/2013/11/19/more-goalless-goals.htm
"Medicine and sickness subdue each other. The whole earth is medicine. Where do you find yourself?"