this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
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chapotraphouse
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. It’s rather absurd that I get to live at all.
I feel like I understand the Buddha better as years go by. I want to enjoy this strange and mysterious opportunity to be without becoming too attached to all these temporary things, myself included. Indeed, my life today looks nothing like it did 10 years ago. I’m not sure I am the same person. In many ways, it’s like every day we die and become something new.
happy for you that your quality of life is enough that it's "get to" and not "have to".
even the poorest monk can find moments of joy and happiness that give meaning. I wouldn't be blasé
fuck yeah bro give me 1 second of joy and 86.359 seconds of misery every day and i'll love life bro
unironically, yes.
For context I was born a poor Egyptian and lived through the so-called Arab spring and personally saw murder and death. I’m not some coddled imperialist, and I feel like I have a better connection to life than the comfortable yanks
congrats on dodging the myriad mental illnesses you could've caught from that trauma. do you have an effective clinical treatment for major depression or just survivorship bias?
Oh I have all kinds of mental illnesses you obviously don’t follow my posting notoriety do you?
i don't really retain usernames, reddit habit.
anyway, the ratio as previously described should not be acceptable to people, and to me it sounds exactly like liberal "know your place" kinda shit to say it is.
Who said it should be acceptable? You are drawing all kinds of conclusions I never said.
For me, life is always worth experiencing regardless of said “ratio”. That’s an entirely separate issue of how we ought to arrange society or what standards we should accept
I fundamentally reject such crude utilitarian calculuses of life as Malthusian and not life affirming. This type of utilitarian calculus is what leads to Canada euthanizing all of its mentally ill population
Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing hell, and facing it bravely. Should they all commit suicide to escape their “bad ratios”? Should they flee to another country and let the Zionists win since it would improve their own lives? Should they cease to have children when they may face bad ratios?
There is more to life than pleasure and pain. Sometimes we need optimism and faith and collective purpose.
suppose it's only fair that you take a turn at drawing conclusions i never said, and it's absolutely wild to romanticize getting genocided.
The Palestinians who die in battle are glorious martyrs. There's no undue "romanticization" they are heroes beyond anything you or I could ever accomplish. Maybe you can't see this in your malthusian calculus, and that's why you would never understand their resilience or be able to do it yourself.
It’s obviously horrible that they are experiencing genocide, the mindset they have that allows them to endure it is a revolutionary spirit that your antinatalist Malthusian cynicism could never create. I’m asking you to please think like a Palestinian with optimism. Should they stop having kids cause bad ratios? Doesn’t your defeatism assist the genocide? Should the Palestinians not have revolutionary faith and optimism despite all odds?
that's a rather 19th century view of conflict. the framework that culminated in world war 1. I expect that ideology from the colonizers doing the genocide not from us who condemn them.
there's no honor in fighting, only a tragedy that some of us have no other choice.
There’s no honor in fighting against the Zionist entity? You want to come and say those fighting words to my face godless westoid? Maybe consider the lack of bravery, revolutionary faith, optimism and honor as some of the primary problems with the failed western left (along with the social-chauvinism of course).
honor and a bowl of soup will fill your belly. a lack of idealism isn't anyone's problem.
Your namesake had honor and faith and did what was right despite it ending his family. You are a bit of a hypocrite here. The one good American cracker proves my point. John Brown had an intuitive understanding of his place in the world, the equality between all beings that had to be brought about, his role in the spirit of revolution. He did not follow pleasure and pain but a revolutionary faith.
your point is severely undermined by the fact that people of faith were also on the other side of the conflict, using their mystical beliefs to uphold and defend the institution.
if we're honest, the one good cracker was a stopped clock.
There were millions of liberal abolitionist reformists and not one of them had what it took to spark the necessary revolution. Only the one with an irrational faith took that step
I don’t claim that it’s universally worthwhile. It just is what it is until it isn’t.
And it isn't what it isn't until it is. Swapping around words and dualities is not wisdom, it's sophistry.
I believe you're missing the forest for the trees. Words are signposts, tools. It doesn't mean literal vacuous truth. The phrase is illustrative, of course.
In this case, "is what it is" means forgoing judgement because it doesn't change what already is the case. This seems fundamental to Buddhist teaching that was mentioned in the root comment. This attachment and resistance is, to some interpretations, the source of suffering. At least that's how it was taught to me during my short time living at my local temple.
"Until it isn't" refers to death.
I'm not missing the forest for the trees, I'm telling you that you are looking at a desert with a scrub brush, insistent it's a forest.
It is vacancy masquerading as truth. I am perfectly aware of Buddhist dualisms and detachment theory. However, per Wittgenstein, there is no real wisdom or metaphysical truth to be gained in phraseology and word games. Particularly if they are readily interchangable with their contradictions. It can be fun, but not nessecerily wise or meaningful.
'Isn't what it isn't" means foregoing judgement because it doesn't change what already isn't the case. This attachment and resistance is, to some interpretation, the source of suffering.
'Until it is' refers to death.
They aren't playing word games, you are merely interpreting that way. They are conveying a message via the words to you, one you reject without reason
Ah but have you considered that some of us are into that shit
Actually I’m fine being attached to temporary things, experiencing loss and negative emotions is something I consider healthy for me. I don’t understand why we have these expectations for ourselves that we have to all become beings separate from the reality around us, and deny our emotions and feelings. Feeling remorse and sadness that something is gone does not demand that you cause harm because of it, and the fact we fear that remorse and sadness, not in the normal sense of trying to avoid it, but outright opting out of caring about what we lose or gain, means we haven’t learned to be a living being at all. I think maybe teaching people to feel pain and remorse in healthy ways may even lead to more happiness overall than trying to prevent it at all costs.
Edit: It makes me sad that I will die someday, but accepting that it makes me sad and yet I cannot change it makes much more sense to me than trying to change the fact I am fundamentally sad or attached to this life in the first place. I can accept my emotions and the reality around me at the same time, and in places I cannot, I think it is important to remember that we often experience emotions for a reason, because we are beings capable of changing things for ourselves and others. The important part is to ensure it does not let us hurt people (when not hurting people is a practical option)
Of course others might not feel the same way as me. But everyone is different
But my skills in fromsoft games will seize to exist