Evading suffering is _itself_ a form of suffering

Comments

• Acamon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Isn’t that the basic Buddhist / stoic idea? Avoiding suffering entirely isn’t possible, and obsessing about evading it is itself a heavy burden, instead choose to accept and be at peace with the suffering that is beyond your control.

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  • 667@lemmy.radio ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I’ve heard it out as all life is suffering. It can be a bit dark, depending on one’s headspace, but liberating if simply accepted.

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    • sprite0@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      as a buddhist i think this refers to the inherent struggle that is life itself. every organism is born hungry and needs to fight that constant hunger or die. life IS suffering, because only the living need to fight for every minute to just exist., All of our existential suffering falls from that

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    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      i always read it a bit different

      all life is suffering means literally that. suffering is just another term for the process of being alive. suffering is the experience of all our emotions and everything that we can do in the world. this is suffering, contrasting it to the coldness and stoicism of death.

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    • iii@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Like St. Vincent said: We’re all born screaming

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    • TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I can’t see it as anything other than a logical fact. If you are alive, you will ineveitably face loss, disease, countless other things outside of your control. The phrasing I read was “to live is to suffer” which is the same in the end.

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  • sadTruth@lemmy.hogru.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    As someone who is cautious on stairs, and has fallen on stairs, i can tell you that every second of worrying is worth avoiding the fall.

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  • TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I don’t believe that “be[ing] at peace with suffering” is core to Buddhism. The ending of suffering is.

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• TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Evading work takes a lot of work.

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  • TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Always have something in your hand, a slightly irritated but thoughtful expression on your face, and call in a bomb threat if you get stuck napping under your desk while your boss is in your office waiting for you

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• AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  I’ve come to the conclusion that suffering is really just anything that invades your focus without your desire for it to happen.

  Thinking about anything you would rather not think about is suffering. You get cut and your brain constantly reminds you of it because evolution is a bitch. Hatred, envy, anger, intrusive thoughts, headaches, itchy clothes, annoying noises in your environment, etc. Anything that steals your attention without your consent is suffering.

  So if you’re so focused on avoiding suffering you aren’t able to focus on doing what you want then yep, suffering.

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  • iii@mander.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I’d mostly agree that suffering invades your mind without your desire for it to happen.

    But so does pleasure, surprise, beauty. Those too can’t be forced to happen.

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    • AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      True, but in those cases you don’t want them to stop, unless of course, you are getting distracted by them and would like to stop in which case: suffering. Context is more important than raw qualia.

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  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    anything that invades your focus without your desire for it to happen.

    i guess some call that “harassment”

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• testfactor@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  I mean, I think you may be overselling the word “suffering.” I wouldn’t put “working so I don’t starve” in the same category as “starving to death.”

  If “suffering” just means “anything I don’t 100% love,” then it’s effectively meaningless, no?

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  • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I meant it more in the context of mental health

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• DominatorX1@thelemmy.club ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  It’s all about getting sucked into dreams. Once you’re sucked into a dream, win or lose, you’re still in the dream.

  This is where Vipassana comes in.

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• EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  This could probably be thought of as “fear and anxiety are forms of suffering.” Though it might be a bit more nuanced than that.

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