MountainMan wrote: ↑Wed Nov 07, 2018 1:16 am
I can understand some desire causing some suffering but how about suffering from pain?
The desire to not feel the inevitable pain in life certainly causes additional unnecessary suffering. Who do you think suffers more?
Person A with broken legs who says "Oh well my legs are broken and it's painful! Oh well, might as well just accept it and wheel around in this wheelchair for a while. Ouch, ouch ouch!" and that's the end of it. OR Person B with a broken legs who says "I can't believe this happened! It's so painful, I wish it would stop. I wish this never happened, %%%$ #%%^#^! Son of a B#$%%#!, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc., and this brooding goes on and on and on until the pain goes away.
Person A has pain but no suffering. Person B has pain and suffering because person B desires non-pain when pain is just inevitable. That's a foolish thing to desire because it's contrary to actual reality, it's impossible. A broken leg is going to cause pain regardless of what you want or don't want. If you can stop desiring non-pain, when pain is already there and inevitable, then you won't suffer because of it.
I know that my house is cold in the morning so when I wake up I am desiring warmth. I fire up the woodstove and stand in front of it and am glad for the heat it throws. I dont feel suffering even though I desire warmth. I actually feel happy.
What if someone came along and stole all your firewood and you were unable to heat up the stove, would you still be happy even though you are shivering?