Food poisoning

JetsFan366

This weekend I had a bout of food poisoning, or some other equally painful stomach-illness. It was one of the worst I've ever had. I kept thinking "make it stop" and then I would try to breathe into the pain and try to adapt a curiosity to it to try to transcend it a bit. I wasn't very successful, but didn't really think I would be.

Anyway, the real nugget I took out of the experience was a marveling at how much suffering our minds are capable of. I must say, it was a scary experience. I never want to feel that way again, and yet I know I will, if not in the same 'content' than at least at the same level of intensity. It makes me so sad to think there are people out there starving or being tortured or suffering to some equally terrible level. And for me there is no acceptable answer - if there is a god, s/he sucks for letting this be the case. If there isn't, than what a cruel coincidence it all is!

John_Spencer

@twaitsfan said: "It makes me so sad to think there are people out there starving or being tortured or suffering to some equally terrible level. And for me there is no acceptable answer - if there is a god, s/he sucks for letting this be the case. If there isn't, than what a cruel coincidence it all is!"

God doesn't let this happen.

We do.

JetsFan366

We let those things happen or we let ourselves feel such pain? If the former, I don't agree that we let all such suffering happen. A great great deal is beyond our control and beyond anyone's control.

fivebells

It's not a coincidence. What would be remarkable would be the evolution of an enduring system which didn't struggle to preserve its own integrity.

karasti

It's beyond our individual control, but not our collective control. It takes a number of people (usually) to inflict change. We contribute to the problem on a larger scale by spending money on companies that seek to get rich off poor farmers, leading to high suicide rates in many countries and the destruction of what little fertile crop land they have/had. We contribute by wasting so much of the food we buy. We contribute by still insisting on more and more for us (which in turn means less and less for others). People in the US on average consume 10-12 times the amount of resources as much of the rest of the world. We buy clothes and shoes and furniture and housing materials and toys and gadgets that are contributing to slave labor and horrible work conditions.

So no, most of us can't expect to run over to a drought or poverty ridden nation to just fix them. But most of us can still make changes in our own lives so that suffering the world over is lessened. It's hard to look at ourselves through that microscope though. I'm no different than anyone else. Sometimes it's easy to see where to make simply changes. Sometimes, the change required seems impossible.

how

@Karasti
Are you really railing against our evolutionary survival teachings.
It seems that pain is simply our body teaching us what is harmfull. It makes sense that in a simple electrical warning system, the more harmfull the circumstance, the more pain in the lesson. No deity needed for this teaching.

Your lesson sounded like your body said "Remember this well, do not ever eat this again".
In my world the 4 NT shows that while pain is manditory, suffering is optional.

Of course if anyone tryed to tell me this when I was passing kidneys stones, I might have helped them test this "suffering is optional" teaching.

John_Spencer

how said:

@Karasti

In my world the 4 NT shows that while pain is mandatory, suffering is optional.

Nicely put @how, that's what I learned after 15 years as a physiotherapist too....

karasti

What? Where did I ever say that? I was only responding to the very small section about where John_Spender said "God doesn't let this happen, we do" and someone disagreed saying that a lot is out of our control. In a large sense yes, but we can make small changes in our lives that stop contributing to the suffering of people around the world. That's the only thing I was referring to. Not in any means saying anything about pain and it's existence in our biology. I'm not sure what you got out of what I said, but I don't think it was even in the same book of what I intended to say, LOL. I should have specified that it was only those 2 lines I was replying too and not the general idea of pain resulting from episodes of suffering as in the OPs story.

how

Sorry @Karasti

My Bad! Totally different post & poster.

That should have been @twaitsfan

karasti

Oooh ok! I was so confused, lol.

lobster

karasti said:

Oooh ok! I was so confused, lol.

Welcome to my world.

In Buddhism we don't do Cod or red herring bones. Pain sure is overwhelming :bawl:
Whatever you do, don't consult Cod on what to eat.

Come to think of it the sangha have pretty bizarre culinary habits . . .

Tayata Om Bekanze
Bekanze Maha BeKanze
Radza Samudgate Soha
http://www.jivanjili.org/medicine_buddha_mantra.html

JetsFan366

Hmm - not a lot of compassion here. Not that I was necessarily looking for it, but regardless...

fivebells said:

It's not a coincidence. What would be remarkable would be the evolution of an enduring system which didn't struggle to preserve its own integrity.

Agreed. I had originally written 'joke', but changed it last minute for a less trite word/phrase. Less trite unfortunately meant less accurate. The nature of our reality is the inevitable consequence of the laws of our reality.

karasti said:

It's beyond our individual control, but not our collective control. It takes a number of people (usually) to inflict change...

Yes, I know all this. However, I am more of the persuasion that when it comes to free-will vs. determinism, I tend to fall on the latter side. So I don't blame humanity nearly as much as most people. Frankly, it's amazing that there is as much good in the world as there is. The mere fact that there is so much charity and good work despite the fact that we evolved in a system that runs on the single rule of passing on the gene is a miracle. Of course, since (IMO) most things are deterministic, we (humanity) don't deserve a lot of credit or blame for the situation.

how said:

Of course if anyone tryed to tell me this when I was passing kidneys stones, I might have helped them test this "suffering is optional" teaching.

Yes, that's my point. I don't disagree with the pain-as-a-message idea, but if we're talking about the nature of existence, I can surely wish for a world where pain was just as effective without causing so much suffering.

footiam

twaitsfan said:

This weekend I had a bout of food poisoning, or some other equally painful stomach-illness. It was one of the worst I've ever had. I kept thinking "make it stop" and then I would try to breathe into the pain and try to adapt a curiosity to it to try to transcend it a bit. I wasn't very successful, but didn't really think I would be.

Anyway, the real nugget I took out of the experience was a marveling at how much suffering our minds are capable of. I must say, it was a scary experience. I never want to feel that way again, and yet I know I will, if not in the same 'content' than at least at the same level of intensity. It makes me so sad to think there are people out there starving or being tortured or suffering to some equally terrible level. And for me there is no acceptable answer - if there is a god, s/he sucks for letting this be the case. If there isn't, than what a cruel coincidence it all is!

While food poisoning makes God suck, it should make a doctor shine. While we may not thankful for God, lets be thankful there is a doctor then! It will make life bearable!