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Why is life so unpleasant?

Flickering

Flickering

Bluelighter
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This universe could easily be heaven. Instead, for whatever reason, we go through our lives feeling, for one reason or another, unresolved and frustrated and afraid. We follow one mania or another rush or whatever poison appeals to us, just to feel alive. There's so much hurt but it seems like there doesn't need to be. Why aren't we all living in an eternal state of bliss and wholeness?

What do YOU think?

For my part, I see the universe as a constantly unfolding process that's so much greater than our subjective views on 'good' or 'bad', which are themselves objectively just elements of yet another process. No I don't believe in bad karma or original sin or that we're here to learn some lesson in spiritual autonomy, or that the bad is somehow necessary to balance the good. Various entities have given me an answer I could accept, a cause for suffering in this plane, if I believed they existed and they weren't part all just in my imagination. Oh well.
 
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But why is there any suffering AT ALL?

Or, if we can allow that some is necessary or acceptable, why do living things so often suffer as horrendously as they do?
 
That is a point of view. Suffering is relative to the observer. Your observation is relative to how you perceive the world. It sounds like you need a view that will allow you a larger amount of existential freedom. Look up Satre and Facticity for some idea of what I mean. Try wrap your brain around that.
 
It's not that life is actually unpleasant or pleasant; it's your perception of life that counts. It can change whenever you are ready for it to.

aussie101 said:
I think you need to change your philosophy. Happiness is relative to the observer.

Hope this helps.
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You beat me to it. :)

Flickering said:
But why is there any suffering AT ALL?
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Why is there any happiness at all? Why can't we all just be trees and absorb water, and sunlight, and just automatically grow without thought or conscious movement?

..because the more difficult and the more challenging life is, the more fun it is.

A video game (i.e. Counter Strike) isn't fun if you are guaranteed you'll never lose. It's the thrill of playing the game and killing the enemies while managing to persevere unscathed that makes the game exciting. :)

In other words, there is suffering to allow us to differentiate between the good times and the bad times, so that the good times are that much more enjoyable.

The same concept can be applied to drug addiction. Merely using heroin or another hard drug while sober is one way to get high, but to be a full blown addict and to go from hardcore miserable withdrawals to that same high is so much more satisfying in a way that I could only relate to sex. Imagine having blue balls and needing to bust a nut, and you're frantically fapping as ferociously as your hands can.... versus having sex without much desire, nor the feeling that you are going to go crazy without orgasming. Obvious difference.

I guess another way to look at it is, even though I've gone through some rough shit this year, the good points, even if the best things that have happened to me only lasted for 20 or 30 minutes, and the bad things consumed more time, I'm still 100% satisfied with the way my life is playing out. I'm entirely happy being who I am and am actually quite thankful for where I am in life, despite being hit by a car while on foot and while being in a car (two separate instances) all within the last 2 months (and I won't get into the rest of the shit I have gone through).
 
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One of the foundational principles in Buddhism and Gnosticism is that life will be painful no matter what, and somewhat paradoxically, accepting this without asking why or getting worked up about it is the key to transcending this pain.
 
i think its a neccessity to be able to have good and bad. different people have different mindsets and adopting a different one will show you just how things appear so differetly just through a few single thoughts or actions. i think the striving for power and dominance is a trait that is bred into our dna, on varying scales and this plays a massive part into what is happening in the world. many years ago i had thoughts like you and over time just came to realise that i couldnt change anything that is out of my hands. life is one big rollercoaster and there shouldnt be any suffering, i hope one day there could be some sort of utopia where everyone lives in harmony.

such is the way of the world though, that we need to have polar opposites which allows for suffering as well as happiness. try not to let it get you down but do your best to help others in need.
 
Flickering said:
This universe could easily be heaven. Why aren't we all living in an eternal state of bliss and wholeness
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This is an extremely self-centred notion, typical of human thinking. Not to pick on you, don't take it personally.. but why should existence be geared towards our enjoyment. Why should we be the centre of it all? As others have hinted it comes down to perception.. I think things are quite sufficient the way they are, neither good or bad, it just is.

There is also an actual reason why too; life is the result of tension. If we were in a state of continual bliss we would never get anything done, nothing would get accomplished. There would be no point to our existence as animals. Bliss/pleasure is the bait to keep biological life ticking over.
 
becose the universe wasnt designed for human satisfaction

if anything looking around,if anything this planet is torture device,witch works in way that conciousness is forced to this world and then tortured to death.... some people are lucky,but for many,the life is torture,and its not even their fault
 
Here's my take. I do believe that, in a sense, the universe was created for us. Yes, my life is almost continuously plagued by suffering, but overall, I would say that my life is so fucking beautiful and awesome, that it would be illogical to conclude that I am a random accident of the universe. My life existing as a result of random mathematical weirdness is like a computer glitch creating a functional word processor.

So why suffering? Well, let me ask you another, similar question. Why can't we have a world of ONLY rich people? Wouldn't that be great? So, let's say everyone becomes a millionaire. Now everyone's rich, right? Unfortunately, because wealth only exists in relation to poverty, a man worth $1 million would be considered poor in this hypothetical society, in comparison to a man worth let's say $10 million.

Apply the same logic to pleasure. Pleasure is not only impossible, but completely meaningless, without pain. Just like every piece of rope in the world can't be "long" - if every piece of rope were the exact same length, the concepts of "long" and "short" ropes would be nonexistent.

Captain.Heroin said:
A video game (i.e. Counter Strike) isn't fun if you are guaranteed you'll never lose. It's the thrill of playing the game and killing the enemies while managing to persevere unscathed that makes the game exciting. :)
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omg... omg. I will now commence to love you forever for mentioning CS. <3

If you haven't, you should check out my LSD + MXE report, which mentions CS trippiness.

Flickering said:
But why is there any suffering AT ALL?

Or, if we can allow that some is necessary or acceptable, why do living things so often suffer as horrendously as they do?
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Why do you assume that there is a good reason for things being the way they are? Sure, if we are the creation of an all-powerful and infinitely loving God, we can ask the question, "why did he allow evil to exist?" But the question is nonsensical if there is no such God, and I don't believe there is any particularly compelling evidence for such a deity.

Yes, I realize I'm contradicting my earlier statement; I like to play devil's advocate.

MyDoorsAreOpen said:
One of the foundational principles in Buddhism and Gnosticism is that life will be painful no matter what, and somewhat paradoxically, accepting this without asking why or getting worked up about it is the key to transcending this pain.
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This is absolutely 100% correct, in my experience.

-=SS=- said:
There is also an actual reason why too; life is the result of tension. If we were in a state of continual bliss we would never get anything done, nothing would get accomplished. There would be no point to our existence as animals. Bliss/pleasure is the bait to keep biological life ticking over.
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This is also true. Evolutionarily speaking, pain is quite necessary, as is pleasure - both aversive and attractive conditioning are equally valuable to sustaining the species.
 
The sun burns. I do think there may be a layer of cream so to speak... A "heaven", possibly. The ascended plane.

But here, we definitely burn...
 
all life has unfolded based on the laws of physics, it's just what happened. There's no objective good or bad, there's no one to even say whether something is good or bad for us.

It is about perspective but nevertheless it's quite obvious the balance of human suffering/pleasure is way off, from an objective point of view. It's our nature to chase that next rush, to be optimistic despite knowing that tragedy will plague all of us at some point. I find it analogous to going on a speed binge, you know that crash is going to be terrible but you fight and fight it and when it comes it really fucking sucks but next weekend you'll be back on that speed binge. Life is kind of like that IMO. Just as there's some sort of beauty somewhere in that speed binge, there is also some sort of beauty in life.

suffering is necessary for the universe to evolve and for life on earth to evolve, it's all part of the process, for what purpose? i have no idea.
 
RobotRipping said:
It is about perspective but nevertheless it's quite obvious the balance of human suffering/pleasure is way off, from an objective point of view.
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I disagree. In my experience, pleasure and suffering are pretty much exactly equally balanced. I can't discern a bias toward one or the other.
 
Unless you are in chronic pain i dont really have sympathy for you. life fucking sucks.
i had it all and then a surgeon ruined my life and i lost everything i loved. so fuck you
 
Emotions exist simply to help get the body into better circumstances. Much like pain inflicted by a flame tells you something worthwhile about your body (that it is not resistant to flame), emotional pain says something also-- It is just a bit harder to figure out.
 
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