The concept of suffering (dukkha) in buddhism

[Someone here]

It's a concept known in Buddhism as dukkha, which plays an important role in buddhism. It is said to be one of the three "marks of existence" which all sentient beings experience. which are some of the core teachings in Buddhism all relate to dukkha.

 There are 3 aspects of dukkha: 

1- the suffering of physical and mental illness, growing old, and dying;etc 
2- the anxiety or stress of trying to hold onto things that are constantly changing; and
3-dissatisfaction pervading all forms of life, due to the fact that all forms of life are impermanent and constantly changing.

 

I'm not a buddhist, so I don't have a huge amount of understanding of the subject, but I think that's a moderately correct overview of how dukkha relates to buddhism.  

My question:

was the Buddha suggesting that ALL life is suffering and hardship?  If so, why ? Because clearly there is ups and downs. Sometimes you are happy .other times you are sad .

 

[Blessed2]

1 hour ago, Someone here said:

was the Buddha suggesting that ALL life is suffering and hardship?

 

I suspect yes. Everything in this world / life is transient, imperfect, limited, etc.

 

1 hour ago, Someone here said:

If so, why ?

 

Take a look around. Contrast what life is like for us to complete happiness, paradise, nothingness etc. This world is a turd in contrast to what would make sense for life to be.

 

2 hours ago, Someone here said:

Because clearly there is ups and downs. Sometimes you are happy .other times you are sad .

 

That's the dukkha. Even so-called "happiness" is passing. Who would settle for such bullshit?

 

 

In ACIM it is suggested that the world / life is a projection of ego-mind, or belief in separation.

 

We believe thst there is separation, and as such we believe there is guilt, fear, limit, shortage etc. And the so-called "life / world" is like a metaphor for these illusions to play. Like a movie of guilt, fear, separation, shortage playing out.

 

Why is there sickness, death, bodies? Why do we need to eat food? What kind of "god's perfection" is this nonsense? 😂

[Someone here]

1 hour ago, Blessed2 said:

 

I suspect yes. Everything in this world / life is transient, imperfect, limited, etc.

 

 

Take a look around. Contrast what life is like for us to complete happiness, paradise, nothingness etc. This world is a turd in contrast to what would make sense for life to be.

 

 

That's the dukkha. Even so-called "happiness" is passing. Who would settle for such bullshit?

 

 

In ACIM it is suggested that the world / life is a projection of ego-mind, or belief in separation.

 

We believe thst there is separation, and as such we believe there is guilt, fear, limit, shortage etc. And the so-called "life / world" is like a metaphor for these illusions to play. Like a movie of guilt, fear, separation, shortage playing out.

 

Why is there sickness, death, bodies? Why do we need to eat food? What kind of "god's perfection" is this nonsense? 😂

Haha ..yeah I've been thinking along these lines recently 

If I had enough balls to commit suicide I would. The world is filled with darkness, cruelty and suffering. You can't trust anyone and human beings are selfish. What is the point of life? Some people are destined for misfortune whilst others are lucky. Why do people bring more human beings into this cruel world? Plus we all die anyway and become nothing.

Edited December 19, 2022 by Someone here

[Blessed2]

19 minutes ago, Someone here said:

Haha ..yeah I've been thinking along these lines recently 

If I had enough balls to commit suicide I would. The world is filled with darkness, cruelty and suffering. You can't trust anyone and human beings are selfish. What is the point of life? Some people are destined for misfortune whilst others are lucky. Why do people bring more human beings into this cruel world? Plus we all die anyway and become nothing.

 

Yeah, "the world" does kind of suck big time. Though the thing is there isn't really a world somewhere out there, it's just thought held now. So it might be best to just turn within and see why is it that we come up with a world like this.

[Mandy]

COME ON GUYS, I was having myself a pessimism party over here, thinking it was the color of the season, and now we've all showed up to the same party in the same dress! I'm changing. Ugh. 

[Phil]

6 hours ago, Someone here said:

was the Buddha suggesting that ALL life is suffering and hardship?  If so, why ? Because clearly there is ups and downs. Sometimes you are happy .other times you are sad .

What’s meant by ALL life, as opposed to just, life?

 

What’s life?

 

What’s meant by sentient beings?

 

Who or what is sometimes happy and sometimes sad? What’s said was “you”. Is that meant as other, or are you talking about yourself?

[Joseph Maynor]

Suffering is caused (in part but not entirely) by failing to realize that you can choose to attach (pick something up) and to not attach (put something down) when attachment is bringing you and others suffering.  I don't know if this fits Buddhism, it might go beyond it.  I consider Buddhism as one tool among many tools.  It can be thought of as a network of tools, but that's not so relevant to this discussion.  Suffering is caused in part by unreasonable/unwise attachment.  I deal with this issue in myself and others all the time.  Not knowing when to pick something up or putting it down in your life.  Not taking smart charge of your ability to control what you attach to.  It's a problem.  But it can be worked on too.  I've seen lots of improvement in myself and others on this issue.  I've also seen this problem in others where they're obsessed about/clinging to something that's causing themselves others suffering.  They may know it but still not be able to do something to take their like forward on the issue.  You can know something is right and good and still be unable/unwilling to take action on it.  However you want to conceptualize this dilemma/paradox is up to each individual.  It's your life.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Joseph Maynor

[Someone here]

12 hours ago, Blessed2 said:

 

Yeah, "the world" does kind of suck big time. Though the thing is there isn't really a world somewhere out there, it's just thought held now. So it might be best to just turn within and see why is it that we come up with a world like this.

No one can prove that there is an external world. Everything science observes and measures passes through human consciousness. Human consciousness is the medium. So just as we can't prove that the things we read or see in the news are real because we are relying on journalists to tell us the truth, we can't really prove that anything exists outside our consciousness.

Most would say it's just common sense. Those who argue that the physical dimension is illusory (Idealists, Buddhists and Hindus, among others) would state otherwise.

Of course if it isn't real, a lot of coordination would be required to make sure my illusion is aligned with your illusion, time 5 billion (plus animals, etc.).

This almost certainly requires that separate selves are also an illusion, because the complexity of managing this illusion and communicating it in real time between so many separate selves believably would be...unlikely to say the least.

9 hours ago, Phil said:

What’s meant by ALL life, as opposed to just, life?

 

What’s life?

 

What’s meant by sentient beings?

 

Who or what is sometimes happy and sometimes sad? What’s said was “you”. Is that meant as other, or are you talking about yourself?

I mean the percentage.  Did the Buddha mean that 100% of life is suffering, leaving no room for goodness and happiness?  Or did he mean the three marks of existence alone ?

 

"Life " is synonymous with existence or reality .

"Sentient beings " are self-aware entities. Like humans and animals . Unlike Rocks and trees etc.

Yes ..I meant my personal life .in my personal life I'm sometimes feeling on top of the world and other times I'm feeling like shit . And what Buddhism suggests it's because of our endless desires and cravings .

everyone is simply trying to achieve their 4 human needs, as stated by Maslow. 

Everything anyone EVER does is just them, trying to “get” their human needs. A guy might kill someone, a guy might drink a bottle of vodka…. another person might watch cars go by, while laying on a sidewalk, mindlessly. and theyre ALL just trying to GET THEIR HUMAN NEEDS!

as for me.. I'm probably just not getting enough vareity.

There is really ups and downs in life . So for example If you get sick that's a clear down. If you go with your family and watch a kick-ass movie ,that's an up etc .

6 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Suffering is caused (in part but not entirely) by failing to realize that you can choose to attach (pick something up) and to not attach (put something down) when attachment is bringing you and others suffering.  I don't know if this fits Buddhism, it might go beyond it.  I consider Buddhism as one tool among many tools.  It can be thought of as a network of tools, but that's not so relevant to this discussion.  Suffering is caused in part by unreasonable/unwise attachment.  I deal with this issue in myself and others all the time.  Not knowing when to pick something up or putting it down in your life.  Not taking smart charge of your ability to control what you attach to.  It's a problem.  But it can be worked on too.  I've seen lots of improvement in myself and others on this issue.  I've also seen this problem in others where they're obsessed about/clinging to something that's causing themselves others suffering.  They may know it but still not be able to do something to take their like forward on the issue.  You can know something is right and good and still be unable/unwilling to take action on it.  However you want to conceptualize this dilemma/paradox is up to each individual.  It's your life.

Yes definitely attachment leads to suffering. When we are attached to someone,we keep expectations.each and every expectation is not going to be fulfilled.even if one is fulfilled another will arise.its an unending sequence. After sometime when your wishes are not fulfilled,one can become angry.and anger may lead to conflicts,which itself is suffering.

It is well said “अती के बाद ईती होता है।”means excess of everything is poison may it be love , attachment,caring…

 

Edited December 20, 2022 by Someone here

[James123]

19 hours ago, Someone here said:

It's a concept known in Buddhism as dukkha, which plays an important role in buddhism. It is said to be one of the three "marks of existence" which all sentient beings experience. which are some of the core teachings in Buddhism all relate to dukkha.

 There are 3 aspects of dukkha: 

1- the suffering of physical and mental illness, growing old, and dying;etc 
2- the anxiety or stress of trying to hold onto things that are constantly changing; and
3-dissatisfaction pervading all forms of life, due to the fact that all forms of life are impermanent and constantly changing.

 

I'm not a buddhist, so I don't have a huge amount of understanding of the subject, but I think that's a moderately correct overview of how dukkha relates to buddhism.  

My question:

was the Buddha suggesting that ALL life is suffering and hardship?  If so, why ? Because clearly there is ups and downs. Sometimes you are happy .other times you are sad .

 

The Life=Self=Attachment with thoughts=Suffering. 

[Someone here]

29 minutes ago, James123 said:

The Life=Self=Attachment with thoughts=Suffering. 

Why ?isn't  joy and happiness also inseparable parts of life ? Do you not enjoy music, food ,the sun etc ?

[James123]

12 minutes ago, Someone here said:

Why ?isn't  joy and happiness also inseparable parts of life ? Do you not enjoy music, food ,the sun etc ?

The happiness is within You, it is You. Happiness without any attachment. There is happiness in life and joy, but it is breakable, so easy .

[Someone here]

6 minutes ago, James123 said:

The happiness is within You, it is You. Happiness without any attachment. There is happiness in life and joy, but it is breakable, so easy .

So your argument that all external happiness is temporary and fleeting and thereby not worth clinging to it ,however the inner happiness is more reliable? 

 

think it’s due to we don’t appreciate much on good news or good happenings. We enjoy the good news for a while but often do not even think not to take anything for granted. However, anything negative happens, our attention is totally focused on the bad news and it’ll stay within mind longer than good ones. This is the reason why bad news sells fast and well. It is our human nature of curiosity.

[James123]

2 minutes ago, Someone here said:

So your argument that all external happiness is temporary and fleeting and thereby not worth clinging to it ,however the inner happiness is more reliable? 

 

It is not "my" argument, or not about being reliable. It is just about flowness. You=Flowness, not you are feeling flowness. 

4 minutes ago, Someone here said:

think it’s due to we don’t appreciate much on good news or good happenings. We enjoy the good news for a while but often do not even think not to take anything for granted. However, anything negative happens, our attention is totally focused on the bad news and it’ll stay within mind longer than good ones. This is the reason why bad news sells fast and well. It is our human nature of curiosity.

Suffering is the what the matrix is created on, builded on. Of course, if you can keep good news no matter what happens, which is the other way to interpretate the inner peace. 

[Someone here]

41 minutes ago, James123 said:

It is not "my" argument, or not about being reliable. It is just about flowness. You=Flowness, not you are feeling flowness

What do you mean by flowness ?

Do you mean no resistance and accepting what's happening whatever it may be ? Do you speak from direct experience?  That is ,in your daily life ..Do you "flow " or experience resistance when stuff just don't go your way ?

45 minutes ago, James123 said:

Suffering is the what the matrix is created on, builded on. Of course, if you can keep good news no matter what happens, which is the other way to interpretate the inner peace

But like I said both good and bad exist . You can't  feel good 24/7 . In fact ,I would argue that you can't feel really good without feeling really bad at first . Think about the most delicious food you like ..if you are not hungry you can't enjoy it ..no matter how tasty it is ...you need to suffer first from the pain of hunger to be able to enjoy the taste .

Would you agree? 

[Loop]

@Someone here

 

Loving Love never ends brother! It can never! It is always there, it is charging my physiology I swear to you. This isn’t some bleeding heart hippy I love everyone stuff which is all great, but there isn’t a thing at all, literally only Love is, Love is Source which is always here to be connect to, Freedom, it can be noticed by focusing on Feeling, not thinking, more thinking brings more ideals and idea about paths, when there is literally just the Heart. You are already Happiness, all that is needed is noticing. 

 

Suffering is believing you are a thing that ‘goes through life’, this feels like fate, but there really isn’t. You are Free-Love & Total Wonder. 
Things aren’t constantly changing, You are, this is the Expanse of the Universe. 
Dissatisfaction with the changing because you think it is out of control, the illusion of separate self it seems like no-control, but that is falsehood, you are Freedom. 
 

[James123]

20 minutes ago, Someone here said:

What do you mean by flowness ?

Do you mean no resistance and accepting what's happening whatever it may be ? Do you speak from direct experience?  That is ,in your daily life ..Do you "flow " or experience resistance when stuff just don't go your way ?

Flowing mean is not being attached with thoughts, which means they can not hurt you or make you feel good. You are already are. Empty mind is always same. No movements, time anything you think or no know of. 

23 minutes ago, Someone here said:

ut like I said both good and bad exist . You can't  feel good 24/7 . In fact ,I would argue that you can't feel really good without feeling really bad at first . Think about the most delicious food you like ..if you are not hungry you can't enjoy it ..no matter how tasty it is ...you need to suffer first from the pain of hunger to be able to enjoy the taste .

Would you agree? 

Good and bad exists when you are attached with thoughts. I agree with the food example. Because when you sooo deeply suffer=Death = Empty Mind=Being=Nothing, after that being in the life is amazing, magic, heaven, whatever happens. 

[Phil]

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

I mean the percentage.  Did the Buddha mean that 100% of life is suffering, leaving no room for goodness and happiness?  Or did he mean the three marks of existence alone ?

 

"Life " is synonymous with existence or reality .

Definitions for ‘exist’ were subtly changed in accordance with the collective ignorance of the materialist’s paradigm.

Originally ‘exist’ was used to mean ‘to step out, stand forth, emerge, appear’.

 

If life is existence, and I agree these are synonymous… life, existence… ‘stands forth, emerges, appears’. Life can not therein be rightfully said to be reality, as reality would point to that which is unchanging… standing forth and appearing as life or existence (change). That which neither exists nor doesn’t exist… that which simply Is, is eternal, infinite and unchanging. 

 

100%, or the entirety of life, or, the whole of experience - ‘stands forth, emerges, appears’. 

Therein, when ‘life’ is believed to be reality, that conceptualization veils reality Itself, and that is what’s referred to as suffering. 

To believe that life is reality is to believe that which is appearing as life shares the fate of the apparent body, and that is the most intimate of suffering. 

To recognize this is to recognize the first of the four noble truths. 

 

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

"Sentient beings " are self-aware entities. Like humans and animals . Unlike Rocks and trees etc.

This derives from the misappropriation of the nondual understanding as it pertains to life, existence and reality. That misappropriation is the heart or epitome of suffering, and is precisely why the suicidal ideation occurs. (Misappropriation: To appropriate dishonestly for one's own use; embezzle).

 

It’s solipsism + panpsychism + the ignorance of separate selves (thought attachment); ie “you are the only aware thing”, “you avoid the truth”, “the enlightened self”, etc, etc, etc… all a purporting of the nondual understanding

.

Bear in mind the only relevance here is the end of the confusion, suffering, anxiety and ideation. There are no separate selves. This misappropriation is a mental molestation & manipulation of the innocence of the screen, which Is already infinite, and is already Itself and therein knows nothing of itself. It’s like a form of self-revenge. 

 

Characters the screen is appearing as, given the infinitude & innocence of the screen, can convince the screen that there are separate selves which ‘know’ many ‘things’ about the screen, and have degrees and levels of the screen, which you (the screen) don’t have.  This veils the screen from the recognition that this is not possible because it is already infinite - infinite knowingness without any thing to know. Hence, infinite can not know finite. Purporting that ‘it’ can, is what delusion is, and this is suffering, and therein… so is the adopting of the conjecture therein. 

 

In biblical terminology, this is the cunning & clever ‘devil’ or ‘serpent’ stealing ‘your’ ‘soul’ by tricking you in regard to the tree of knowledge, and then selling yourself back to you for personal financial gain. In legal terminology, this is fraud. In physiological & metaphysical terminology, this is unconscionable and appropriately & accordingly therein quite literally indigestible for all ‘parties’ involved. The discord of this manifests via momentum as dis-ease & therein as heath issues & ideation. 

 

A character on a screen such as in youtube videos is twice removed. This is easily seen from the generational standpoint of there not having been screens before. In meeting a character in person as it were, you would be shocked & surprised to see first hand the actor is actually suffering more much than you would have suspected in believing the acting. 

 

Film can be used to convince you of all kinds of things. Film can even be used to convince the screen that it is a character in the movie, using meaning, purpose & value to manipulate itself. A can opener has a purpose as it were, the screen does not. The screen is being ‘the can opener’ and “purpose”.  The characters in a movie have not any of the screen, as they are the appearance of and have no reality apart from. 

 

The Four Noble Truths as outlined in 624 B.C. by The Buddha:
The truth of suffering.
The truth of the origin of suffering.
The truth of the end of suffering.
The truth of the path that frees us from suffering.

 

Buddhism wise, the misappropriation cleverly & purposefully prevents the recognition of the first truth, which prevents the recognition of the second. 

But it doesn’t have to, which is the second. 

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

Yes ..I meant my personal life .in my personal life I'm sometimes feeling on top of the world and other times I'm feeling like shit . And what Buddhism suggests it's because of our endless desires and cravings .

As reality is appearing as, there is no such thing as ‘my personal life’. What that which is an appearance ‘has’, is of course also only appearance. 

“On top of the world” and “shit” are thoughts, concepts… and that is what’s felt. Because it is only the activity of thought, Buddism suggests meditation, which is nothing other than allowing that activity of thought to settle, or come to rest. But ye listens to the serpent which demeans this, and ye continues to believe the serpent at ye’s own expense. This points to the second truth. 

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

everyone is simply trying to achieve their 4 human needs, as stated by Maslow. 

‘Everyone’ including Maslow is a conceptualization of separate selves which ‘stand out’ as life or existence, but are not reality. For the ‘separate self’ of thought, there are of course ‘separate things’, which are needed & achieved, and this is the suffering. For the individual to realize the molestation and manipulation which has already occurred, would be the end of the individual, and therein the end of suffering. 

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

Everything anyone EVER does is just them, trying to “get” their human needs.

The belief in the separate self is projected onto infinite self. For this there is meditation. 

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

A guy might kill someone, a guy might drink a bottle of vodka…. another person might watch cars go by, while laying on a sidewalk, mindlessly. and theyre ALL just trying to GET THEIR HUMAN NEEDS!

This points to the first noble truth, not to a a world of separate selves 

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

as for me.. I'm probably just not getting enough vareity.

Too much. Discernment, listening to feeling & the guidance of emotion over quantity, brings ease & effortlessness to the ‘sifting’. Listening to Phil is already too much. Feeling & emotion are already overlooked. 

4 hours ago, Someone here said:

There is really ups and downs in life . So for example If you get sick that's a clear down. If you go with your family and watch a kick-ass movie ,that's an up etc

According to the separate self, there are a great many dualities which are real.

But the separate self is the illusion of believing thoughts, and is and never was real. 

 

Any time you are experiencing suicidal ideation, immediately call a suicide prevention hotline. Do not wait or put it off, as momentum can be shifted, and nipping it in the bud is most effortless. 

[Nomad]

I think the Buddha meant that suffering is a part of every person’s life, not that a person is in misery all of the time.  As you mentioned, the source of suffering is the wanting - the wanting of things to be different than they appear to be.  To a person, the road of life appears to be fraught with hazards, and no person is skillful enough to avoid all of the obstacles all of the time.  The ups and downs you think you feel are thoughts that arise as you “travel the road”.  Patterns of thought seemingly emerge, and “train” the person to associate certain conditions with certain feelings.   We’ve been taught that, through evolution, conditions that favor the survival of the organism are associated with pleasurable feelings.  That’s the game of life.  Every person plays the game.  Every person uses their own strategy, within their means, in an attempt to feel pleasurable feelings by playing the game a certain way.  It’s the basis for essentially everything that happens in our relative world.

 

Every strategy is a winner in the end, but that doesn’t necessarily help you feel better today.  So, what’s the best way to play the game?  Should one not play at all?  In my humble opinion, I think the answer has something to do with recognizing the game for what it is, total acceptance/surrender, and then taking a fresh look at precisely who or what is playing.  In practical relative terms, that means meditation focused on release, letting-go, and surrender; and self-inquiry focused on authenticity and openness.  Nothing you haven’t heard before, right?  In fact, you probably already know all of this.  It’s been my experience that, on occasion, my “knowledge” has been the very thing that prevented an opening for an insight.  I don’t really know how that works, but I think it’s related to knowing instead of being, or conceptualizing instead of embodying.  Somehow, our knowledge acts as a dam preventing the flow of what is actual.  At the very least, our knowledge can muddy the waters to the point of unpleasant confusion.  If your project (knowledge structure) looks hopeless, sometimes it’s best to raze it, foundation and all, and start again (or don’t start at all…).   

[Someone here]

54 minutes ago, Phil said:

Life can not therein be rightfully said to be reality, as reality would point to that which is unchanging… standing forth and appearing as life or existence (change). That which neither exists nor doesn’t exist… that which simply Is, is eternal, infinite and unchanging

And what exactly is that ? What in your direct experience is unchanging?  I would say that change itself is the only unchanging thing ..Do you agree? 

If you mean awareness..you can't separate awareness from that which It is aware of .otherwise you might fall into dualism. 

 

Imagine if something lasted forever. The Quarantine in 2021 was  more or less hell for everyone, and almost none of us would want quarantine to drag on forever.

Hate to burst your bubble about what feels like eternity (or it does for me and the people around me), but not a single nanosecond of eternity has passed. Because all past and future..all times ..are imaginary. 

58 minutes ago, Phil said:

100%, or the entirety of life, or, the whole of experience - ‘stands forth, emerges, appears’. 

Therein, when ‘life’ is believed to be reality, that conceptualization veils reality Itself, and that is what’s referred to as suffering. 

To believe that life is reality is to believe that which is appearing as life shares the fate of the apparent body, and that is the most intimate of suffering. 

To recognize this is to recognize the first of the four noble truths. 

I get ya .so by mistaking the direct experience of our eternal infinite Self (which I don't have access to yet because I'm not enlightened yet )..with the apparent material existence..we blur the two and as a consequence believe that ,for example, the true self will die along with death of the body ,am I understanding you correctly? 

1 hour ago, Phil said:

Characters the screen is appearing as, given the infinitude & innocence of the screen, can convince the screen that there are separate selves which ‘know’ many ‘things’ about the screen, and have degrees and levels of the screen, which you (the screen) don’t have.  This veils the screen from the recognition that this is not possible because it is already infinite - infinite knowingness without any thing to know. Hence, infinite can not know finite.

Good analogy  👍 

So  the nature of human being.. His nature is to be exactly the way he is. You can do whatever you do but you can not become anything other than you are right now.

The path to enlightenment is illusion too? But you for yourself must realize it. That is why the path is required. The path is here to show you that you can NOT "become" anything other than what you already eternally are.

So..No bliss, no Nirvana, no absolute conciousness? These all are just illusory stages on your way back to the most simple “state” of being. Same as you were born, but you forgot.

I think the Good news are that there is nothing you can do to become what you are. The bad news are that people do not realize it and trying to become all other, being not satisfied with the simplicity of the moment.

But in this very simplicity is hidden the freedom one is  looking for. Is that correct ?

1 hour ago, Phil said:

Film can be used to convince you of all kinds of things. Film can even be used to convince the screen that it is a character in the movie, using meaning, purpose & value to manipulate itself. A can opener has a purpose as it were, the screen does not. The screen is being ‘the can opener’ and “purpose”.  The characters in a movie have not any of the screen, as they are the appearance of and have no reality apart from

Yes .so the screen of consciousness or what's directly occurring right this very moment is all that there is ..the boundaries we perceive between different objects is an illusory perception because its  just one unified undifferentiated field of isness with stuff popping in and out that can make it seem like stuff is happening and time is real etc? 

1 hour ago, Phil said:

As reality is appearing as, there is no such thing as ‘my personal life’. What that which is an appearance ‘has’, is of course also only appearance. 

“On top of the world” and “shit” are thoughts, concepts… and that is what’s felt. Because it is only the activity of thought, Buddism suggests meditation, which is nothing other than allowing that activity of thought to settle, or come to rest. But ye listens to the serpent which demeans this, and ye continues to believe the serpent at ye’s

I don't know how can you deny the reality of there being a "me " or " my personal life " and at the same paragraph reaffirm it (ye listens...)😅

Is there a you or not ? You gotta make up your mind sir lol.

1 hour ago, Phil said:

Everyone’ including Maslow is a conceptualization of separate selves which ‘stand out’ as life or existence

But you can say that about anything and it doesn't change what Is real . Sure you can call a knife a conceptualization..but when I wound you with it becomes more real than real ...

1 hour ago, Phil said:

Any time you are experiencing suicidal ideation, immediately call a suicide prevention hotline. Do not wait or put it off, as momentum can be shifted, and nipping it in the bud is most effortless

Well I guess you are hinting at my comment when I said "if I had enough balls to commit suicide I would " ...don't take it too seriously..I'm generally very grounded person and suicide doesn't occur to me that often..but thanks.  Thanks for your clarifications and for your caring about my well being 🙏

1 hour ago, Loop said:

@Someone here

 

Loving Love never ends brother! It can never! It is always there, it is charging my physiology I swear to you. This isn’t some bleeding heart hippy I love everyone stuff which is all great, but there isn’t a thing at all, literally only Love is, Love is Source which is always here to be connect to, Freedom, it can be noticed by focusing on Feeling, not thinking, more thinking brings more ideals and idea about paths, when there is literally just the Heart. You are already Happiness, all that is needed is noticing. 

 

Suffering is believing you are a thing that ‘goes through life’, this feels like fate, but there really isn’t. You are Free-Love & Total Wonder. 
Things aren’t constantly changing, You are, this is the Expanse of the Universe. 
Dissatisfaction with the changing because you think it is out of control, the illusion of separate self it seems like no-control, but that is falsehood, you are Freedom. 
 

Thank you so much. Very beautiful comment 👌 ❤. 

it’s important though to understand that love in every form comes from the same place. Ultimately, there is only one love and everything we treat like a different kind of love is simply a different way to express the same fundamental force in the universe.

The biggest problem with the idea of unconditional love is that people fail to see love for how it really works. In fact, we are actively discouraged from accepting that love is something internal to everyone. It’s 100% selfish and 100% about how you choose to experience love and express love. We just lump these two modalities

together and add some unreasonable obligation so that we can justify not expressing our love to others out of fear, not insight.

1 hour ago, James123 said:

Flowing mean is not being attached with thoughts, which means they can not hurt you or make you feel good. You are already are. Empty mind is always same. No movements, time anything you think or no know of. 

Good and bad exists when you are attached with thoughts. I agree with the food example. Because when you sooo deeply suffer=Death = Empty Mind=Being=Nothing, after that being in the life is amazing, magic, heaven, whatever happens. 

Got it . So good and bads are no real..they are just conceptualization?  What we truly are is beyond concept or thought.  And it can't be expressed or explained with words .so the best way to talk about it is to not talk at all 😅

 

1 hour ago, Nomad said:

Every strategy is a winner in the end, but that doesn’t necessarily help you feel better today.  So, what’s the best way to play the game?  Should one not play at all?  In my humble opinion, I think the answer has something to do with recognizing the game for what it is, total acceptance/surrender, and then taking a fresh look at precisely who or what is playing.  In practical relative terms, that means meditation focused on release, letting-go, and surrender; and self-inquiry focused on authenticity and openness.  Nothing you haven’t heard before, right?  In fact, you probably already know all of this.  It’s been my experience that, on occasion, my “knowledge” has been the very thing that prevented an opening for an insight.  I don’t really know how that works, but I think it’s related to knowing instead of being, or conceptualizing instead of embodying.  Somehow, our knowledge acts as a dam preventing the flow of what is actual.  At the very least, our knowledge can muddy the waters to the point of unpleasant confusion.  If your project (knowledge structure) looks hopeless, sometimes it’s best to raze it,

👍 

Sometimes too much effort stands in the way of progress and you end up blocking the flow of things.

As you insist on injecting your energy, resources and thoughts in order to make something happen, the way you want, you actually end up arresting it. There is no motion forward and you feel stuck with what you are trying to achieve.

The “law of least effort” is based on the notion that what is meant to be will be, you simply need to let go and allow the flow.

[James123]

53 minutes ago, Someone here said:

it . So good and bads are no real..they are just conceptualization?  What we truly are is beyond concept or thought.  And it can't be expressed or explained with words .so the best way to talk about it is to not talk at all 😅

Yes, they are conceptualization. Of course, anything we say is just a Personal opinion nothing more or less. How can you describe thoughtlessness? 😂lol