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~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 2:19 am
by Bill Wiltrack
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To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.
~ Friedrich Nietsche ~
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Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 11:01 am
by vegetariantaxidermy
Good choice. That witch at the bottom caused a lot suffering.
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 11:24 am
by Terrapin Station
Not sure what sort of answer you're looking for, but I don't have much suffering normally anyway.
I rather find it odd when I run into folks, especially antinatalists, who seem to believe that most folks have a significant amount of persistent suffering. That's not my experience. There are some Eeyores around for sure, but that's never seemed to be most people.
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 12:38 pm
by ken
In a meaningful life there is no suffering.
After learning how to live a life full of meaning I now have no suffering.
But where I found meaning in my suffering previously was by accepting, and taking, full responsibility for how I felt. As soon as I owned the feeling suffering became non-existent.
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 12:57 pm
by Bill Wiltrack
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While there is a lower class, I am in it, while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
~ Eugene V. Debs ~
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Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 1:00 pm
by Terrapin Station
Why wasn't he happy all the time just in case some folks were? Just what sort of "I commune with my fellow man" message is that?
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 1:10 pm
by ken
Terrapin Station wrote:Why wasn't he happy all the time just in case some folks were? Just what sort of "I commune with my fellow man" message is that?
If others are suffering, then how could you be (truly) happy?
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 1:12 pm
by Bill Wiltrack
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You may not be suffering today...but you will feel suffering.
To suffer is to be human.
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Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 1:38 pm
by Terrapin Station
ken wrote:Terrapin Station wrote:Why wasn't he happy all the time just in case some folks were? Just what sort of "I commune with my fellow man" message is that?
If others are suffering, then how could you be (truly) happy?
If others are happy, then how could you be (truly) suffering?
Why does it work one way and not the other?
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 1:40 pm
by Terrapin Station
How are you suffering, Bill?
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 2:08 pm
by Bill Wiltrack
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Like you, I am in this world but not of this world. This is the source of endless anguish and suffering.
& as the Eugene Victor Debbs quote above so elegantly depicts - humans are empathetic. We are capable of feeling others suffering.
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Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 3:33 pm
by Lacewing
Terrapin Station wrote:How are you suffering, Bill?
Oh god, don't ask.
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 3:39 pm
by Lacewing
Terrapin Station wrote:ken wrote:
If others are suffering, then how could you be (truly) happy?
If others are happy, then how could you be (truly) suffering?
Why does it work one way and not the other?
That's beautiful logic!
It is MY DUTY to live as joyfully as I can. That is what I contribute to the whole... and surely that ripples throughout the whole, as all energies seem to. We need BALANCE to people's suffering. To suffer along with them helps no one and demonstrates nothing noble. Rather, we can remind them of what else there is, and that might just inspire them to be lifted out of whatever they feel stuck in.
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 3:50 pm
by Terrapin Station
Bill Wiltrack wrote:Like you, I am in this world but not of this world. This is the source of endless anguish and suffering.
Not sure what that's referring to--maybe you're hinting at some religious views you have or something? I think I'm in and of the world and not separate from it in any way.& as the Eugene Victor Debbs quote above so elegantly depicts - humans are empathetic. We are capable of feeling others suffering.
But not empathetic when we're not talking about something negative? We're not capable of feeling others' joy/ecstasy/lack of suffering/etc.? In other words, why would some people be left out? People feel all sorts of different ways, many of them incompatible with each other. So why would we only have empathy for some of them and not others? And we can't feel all those ways all the time, of course.
Anyway, I was asking you a bit more specifically to mention some ways that you experience "endless anguish and suffering." Just what is ailing you specifically?
Re: ~ Where Do You Find Meaning in Your Suffering? ~
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 3:56 pm
by Bill Wiltrack
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The same things that ail you ail me & everyone else who is reading this philosophically important thread.
Our bodies are frail, our minds are static.
The world is forever changing & we don't know why. THAT is what I mean by we are in this world but not of this world.
You will die - if you're not dead already. World just keeps spinnin!
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