One of the common psychological attitudes of modern life is the belief that the world should generally be a place of fulfillment, enjoyment, and contentment. When, as is often the case, the inescapable tragedy of life cuts against these expectations, we experience it not just as a bitter pill that we must swallow but as a mortal injustice and violation of the natural order of things. If, on the other hand, one believes that one is put on Earth to suffer, and that this pain has an ultimate purpose, it makes the suffering inevitably contained in life less shocking and hurtful. It also makes it easier to treasure the good aspects of existence that one does experience, rather than considering them merely our due and quickly forgetting them after they occur. The widespread belief, implicitly held by most people today, that a broken world
Find myself in more and more conversations about this topic these days. So many people struggling with anxiety and depression and the constant state of seeking pleasures while thinking there's something wrong with them that their life doesn't look like the ideal social media specimen
There's a lot about human condition that religions and the ancients get that somehow modern human have missed. May be its because of the material benefits we've accrued over the past few centuries that we feel we're entitled to better life or better outcomes. Or if its the absence of religion where at least you find solace that if not in this world, the idea that things will be made right in the hereafter that allows human beings to let go.
Thank you for passing on the wonderful quote from Mawlana.
To me, an atheist, the challenge is to accept what comes in life without any expectation of a reward (or punishment) in an afterlife. We receive an undeserved gift of nature when we are born beings capable of understanding much, knowledge denied all other life. But it is temporary. All we can do is be courageous and work for the common good as well as our own as we give meaning to our few decades. As Joni Mitchell once sang, it all comes down to you. As the Buddha said, work out your own salvation with diligence.
As for suicide, I can think of nothing worse than being kept alive by technical means when all desire to continue living is gone. That is a hell in the real world.
marvelous ... thank you
I love this poem, I have a copy I keep on hand.
Find myself in more and more conversations about this topic these days. So many people struggling with anxiety and depression and the constant state of seeking pleasures while thinking there's something wrong with them that their life doesn't look like the ideal social media specimen
There's a lot about human condition that religions and the ancients get that somehow modern human have missed. May be its because of the material benefits we've accrued over the past few centuries that we feel we're entitled to better life or better outcomes. Or if its the absence of religion where at least you find solace that if not in this world, the idea that things will be made right in the hereafter that allows human beings to let go.
Thank you for passing on the wonderful quote from Mawlana.
To me, an atheist, the challenge is to accept what comes in life without any expectation of a reward (or punishment) in an afterlife. We receive an undeserved gift of nature when we are born beings capable of understanding much, knowledge denied all other life. But it is temporary. All we can do is be courageous and work for the common good as well as our own as we give meaning to our few decades. As Joni Mitchell once sang, it all comes down to you. As the Buddha said, work out your own salvation with diligence.
As for suicide, I can think of nothing worse than being kept alive by technical means when all desire to continue living is gone. That is a hell in the real world.