This thing we call suffering — what is it, really? <\/p>\n
We hate it so much that we take it for granted. <\/p>\n
Taken to extremes it’s a state in which we wish we didn’t exist.<\/p>\n
But even if that’s true it doesn’t answer the question.<\/p>\n
Can we use suffering as a gateway? As a target for enquiry, by examining suffering to see what it is?<\/p>\n
Its origin? Natural selection may have created a simple pain signal to cause organisms to pay attention, because consciousness heals. But over time, as nervous systems became more complex, this simple signal evolved into suffering.<\/p>\n
Theodicy: The problem seems to be that consciousness and the world interact in a bad way. If animals (including us) weren’t conscious, then animals eating live animals would be as innocuous as recycling aluminum cans. <\/p>\n
The last paragraph is inconsistent with the Upanishadic view that consiousness is the ontologic basis for the world. So what?<\/p>\n
Bottom line: What is suffering? Try to see.<\/p>\n
Photo of Busaba at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand by Ashley Vincent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This thing we call suffering — what is it, really? We hate it so much that we take it for granted. Taken to extremes it’s a state in which we wish we didn’t exist. But even if that’s true it doesn’t answer the question. Can we use suffering as a gateway? As a target for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,22,28],"class_list":["post-2134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-consciousness","tag-self-enquiry","tag-theodicy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YVpx-yq","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2134"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2149,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2134\/revisions\/2149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freddieyam.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}