This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com
…it’s not what happens in our life that makes us suffer, but how we interpret it.
We can spend our time planning out our lives, setting goals and creating an illusion of control over this crazy world, but in reality we have little–if any–control. You can be in the best shape of your life and on cloud nine one minute, then get hit by a car the next, ending the rest of your days as a paraplegic. You never know what’s around the corner. Then, every once in a while, we’ll predict something that comes to pass, feeding our ego and again reinforcing the illusion we can see our future–yet it is just that: illusion.
The Buddha taught all life is suffering. Sounds depressing–from a superficial analysis–but the deeper meaning is our suffering is due to attachment. When we lose something to which we feel attachment, it can become the tipping point over an edge.
This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com
February 14th, 2008 at 7:46 am
It’s not life that sucks. It’s my unrealistic expectations about life that make it seem like it sucks.
February 14th, 2008 at 9:30 am
sometimes it actually does suck!
February 14th, 2008 at 11:00 am
For those of us who are fortunate enough to ponder such existential absurdities, yes, attachment is a source of suffering. Some of us may even have the time to transcend our imagined suffering. For much of the rest of us that do not, and for those of us who actually are suffering in a physical sense and not an existential one, it’s a bunch of mystical gobbledygook. But “the rest of us” often don’t count in these equations. So nevermind.
I have had the “pleasure” of seeing someone who had the same mindset reflected in Bill’s comment actually suffer — in a physical, brutal way. It confirmed to me that all this “pain is in the mind” shit was really in his mind, and that his nervous system was fully functional. So perhaps, in surviving such an experience, he would be more empathetic to the plight of others in the arc of his political influence. Perhaps not.
I think non-Buddhists, when they read amateurs commenting on suffering, pain and attachment, fail to understand that the goal isn’t about eliminating pain and suffering at all, because that in and of itself is an attachment to a state of being without these experiences. The goal is to abide in them.
Developing…
February 14th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
of course people who r suffering from extreme situations (both mentally and physically) will have more to deal with…either way, they have to or simply check out
r u buddhist?
February 14th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
“So perhaps, in surviving such an experience, he would be more empathetic to the plight of others in the arc of his political influence. Perhaps not.” You talking about John McCain there?
February 14th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
i’m not a john mccain fan, but his suffering was real…i don’t think torture was in his mind…he must be talking about someone else
he may be referring to richard, but what do i know
February 14th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Meh.
It’s a biological fact that pain is in the mind, just as our perceptions of color, music, fear, love, and arousal are. A functional nervous system transmits signals that our brains interpret. It’s also a biological fact that most of this is beyond conscious control, especially in regards to damaging pain (hand on a hot burner, etc.), although persons under hypnosis have been capable of ignoring damaging pain, as well as persons in religious trances.
However, I thought it was pretty obvious the original context was more existential than actual, as in the pain of losing attachment to one’s health, wealth, or physical ability and the act of coping with that loss over the long-term, although it seemed to me that Jay was hijacking the thread into “the immediate pain of losing attachment to one’s fingernails at the hands of malicious intent for political purposes” or some such shit. Reference “in his political arc” as my cue, there. I could be misinterpreting his intent …
My “joke” was the irony of the one major presidential candidate who HAS experienced torture at enemy hands, being a staunch advocate of torture today. Irony is so good at cleansing the palate after lunch. :)
February 14th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
bill: irony is great when u get it…it went completely over my head! now, the jokes on me
February 14th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
This is all way too complicated. Just have pleasurable experiences day and night, forever, and never die, and then it doesn’t matter as much whether you get attached to it or not.
see? I’m not just a pretty face that can trade like a mutha. I’m also a deep-thinking problem solver.
February 14th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
“Just have pleasurable experiences day and night” - Go away! ‘Batin’!
February 14th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
[obligatory "Idiocracy" reference]
February 14th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
richard = deep thinking problem solver (YES), trades like a mutha (YES), pretty face (???) that’s not exactly what comes to mind…beauty is in the eye of the meholder
February 15th, 2008 at 6:45 am
Richard you are my Bodhisattva.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Most, but not all, Mahayana Buddhists believe there are 10 to 14 stages of becoming a Bhudda. (There is a very reliable introductory article on this at Wikipedia, by the way.) They are:
1. The path to insight (stage 1 as well),
2. The path of meditation (stages 2 to 7), and
3. The path of no more learning (stages 8 to 10).
Form your own analogies. Intuitively, it is easy to think of us all here in the blogosphere as bodhisattvas on the path to trading enlightenment.
Perverting…
February 15th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Excellent quote. Supporting Jay’s comments on the Buddhist view on pain, I recently watched a documentary about two western doctors who go around the world in search of new insights. In one episode, they spend time with a Tibetan buddhist medicine man/priest and are shocked at how he handles pain without anaesthetics. They learn that the local people have a different perception of pain. They still feel it but they choose ‘not to mind’ it. Very insightful.
More importantly, I never knew what those weird kettlebells were in the corner of the gym. Might try and swing one about one day!