What is life without Suffering?
We all suffer from being ignorant. Is it possible to end your ignorance? According to the Buddhist theory it is. It is possible to end your ignorance and all personal desire to eventually become enlightened and reach Nirvana, which is utter peace. Ending your ignorance will in turn end suffering. The Buddha taught that there were many natural occurrences that led up to ignorance and that we all are capable of liberating ourselves from. It is true that we all have desires that our unmet and it causes problems in our lives. It is also true that the world is full of hunger, war, death, and over all misery and pain. But what would our world be without problems. If we all were enlightened and free of all our ignorance then our lives and world would be incredibly boring and uneventful. We don’t like having problems and challenges but our lives are about working through problems and overcoming and learning. Ignorance does cause many problems but knowing everything about our world can often bring you down instead of up. Losing ignorance is very important in maturing and evolving as a person but losing your ignorance is not the end to all your suffering. There is no end to suffering, there are breaks but there is no end.
According to the bandits theory life is full of misery and pain. Everything we have and want brings some sort of pain to our lives. We fear losing what we have and we always want more. Buddhists believe we all are born with this feeling and that we all cling to objects in this world for enjoyment. We all have a lot of natural desires because we are all human beings with brains, senses, and feelings. All of this makes us get impressions of what we want, what we want to be, and what we think should happen. This causes us all to have some ignorance to many different things and ideas. It is correct that our lives are full of misery and pain. We also are all ignorant, but having ignorance and some suffering in your life is what makes our world what it is, it is what makes our lives interesting. The problems and obstacles that we have in our lives help us change and help us grow. If you eliminate all of your problems and all your desires, what do you have to live for?
We as humans tend to have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. We look for knowledge about everybody and everything that surrounds us in our day-to-day life. Sadly though, we must accept that in the grand scheme of life we (as a society) tend to put pleasure above our quest for knowledge. The pursuit of knowledge tends to take time and energy, two things we call invaluable, and it also shows us things that might depress us. Contrastingly, ignorance takes no time and energy.
Throughout the history of mankind there have been numerous cases in which people were victims of oppression or hate. Among these cases the sole reasoning behind this oppression or hate being based on the perception of others. History has shown that society is responsible for labeling groups of people, generally these labels are misleading.
In today’s society many technological advances have contributed to advanced communication. While these are advantageous and can improve communication across the globe, they have become a hindrance to critical thinking. With the advancement of technology throughout the world human beings are able to think less while still “functioning.” Literacy is thrown to the wayside and texting “lingo” runs rampant. Why read a book when you can watch the movie? Students are becoming less interested in language, reading, and writing and more involved with surfing the web for answers. This shift in the value of literacy opens the world up to many dangers that if not confronted and demolished could lead to a society unable to think for themselves.
Ignorance is bliss as one who is ignorant does not fully understand all the issues occurring around him or her and is therefore somewhat innocent to them. In “Revelation”, by Flannery O’Conner, the main character Mrs. Turpin is ignorant of the fact she is the same as everyone else, but she has different classifications of people of which she is of the higher category. O’Connor uses “Revelation” as a tool to represent people who are both ignorant and not ignorant and what it almost takes for some people to fully overcome ignorance.
Finding the answer as to how he could end humans suffering was difficult, in order to determine that question Buddha had to find what the cause of suffering was first. Buddha learned that himself Buddha said “the causing of suffering is craving, desire, and ignorance”. By desire, Buddhists refer to craving pleasure such as, cars, tv, clothing, never dying, all of these wants can never be made true. By craving, we crave food, wealth, clothing, entertainment, and beauty. Ignorance on the other hand is not being able to see the truth about things. Without the ability to hold or do something for mental concentration and understanding of the deep things, Buddhism tells why someone 's mind is left not developed, and not able to understand the true nature of things. To comprehend that ignorance and craving are the main causes of suffering in life. If people were to understand this, they would not be suffering and that would lead them to true happiness for the rest of their
Buddhism teaches that humans have a repetitive cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Each reincarnated life is decided into a better, worse, or a similar life, depending upon the person's Karma. The goal is to escape from this cycle and reach Nirvana, and once this is attained, the mind is free from suffering. Buddhism teaches a lesson through its followers in order to make them fully understand that one lives for a reason, which is to eliminate all their desires. Document 6 it quotes,
So in all actuality, Buddhist believe that every day on earth, people should live with good positive feelings, positive thinking, positive attitude. As Buddhist people suggested, life is practice. One can not be happy in the after life unless one takes the advantage of their life on earth.
Our knowledge is a key to our success and happiness in our life to give us personal satisfaction. Knowledge is power but not always. Sometimes our self-awareness and growth as an individual gives us negative thoughts that make us want to go back to undo it. Everyone wants to unlearn a part in our life that brought us pain and problems. Good or bad experiences brought by true wisdom can be used for our self-acceptance, self-fulfillment and these experiences would make us stronger as we walk to the road of our so called “life”, but Douglas’s and my experience about knowledge confirmed his belief that “Knowledge is a curse”. Both of us felt frustrated and sad from learning knowledge.
It has been said that ignorance is bliss and if we do not know that something more exists, we do not yearn for it. It has also been said that the door to enlightenment and inner wisdom, once opened, can never be closed again. Many great philosophers and teachers have dealt with the idea of whether it is better to live a life of servitude and submission, or are we to pursue a life of personal happiness and emotional freedom.
“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” Gautama Buddha, a figure responsible for the founding of the Buddhist culture, urges that those who experienced a fulfilling life will succeed. However, in this generation, social norms placed on citizens prevent this state of spiritual acceptance. For instance, humans have this certain mindset to crave perfection, knowledge, and power; and, as a result, these needs hinder any attempt to succeed. In other words, humans have the condition to continuously strive for success through the means of power and control. Contrarily, this excessive need to succeed, consequently, segways to conflicts; and, as a result, the solution
Furthermore, even the happiest and carefree of people will eventually experience some kind of suffering. The Buddha taught people to recognize that suffering is part of life and that it cannot be avoided. However, this suffering does not only come from the body—it also comes from within. Those who experience loneliness, depression, anxiety, or cannot satisfy their needs and wants are suffering. Despite the negative aspects of suffering, Siddhartha also spoke of happiness through friendships, family life, or health. Though, the downfall to this is that happiness is impermanent—or annica—and will not end all suffering. Buddhists believe that the way to end suffering is to first accept the fact that suffering is a fact of life. The next aspect to recognize is what causes such suffering?
Not only does ignorance have a negative impact on people, it is also “the root and stem of all evil” (Plato), which can destroy a person. To start off, self-superiority can cloud a person’s judgment; making it evident that intelligence can easily be lost to arrogance. To add on, anger and the human tendency to make rash decisions can also contribute to ignorance, resulting in eventual downfall. Lastly, unconscious attempts to blind yourself from the truth can result in the committing of major sins. Tragedy occurs in “Oedipus the King” when ignorance causes disastrous events, proving that lack of knowledge can result in their misfortune.
The Buddha stated that to live means to inescapably experience sorrow and dissatisfaction. Each new obstacle needs to be analyzed and understood so a solution can be found. Suffering cannot be avoided but the four noble truths indicate how each person can respond to it (Ellwood, McGraw, 121).
The United States was built on the foundation of freedom. This freedom included the right to express one’s views without prosecution or limitation. This paved the way for the freedom to learn and pursue educational achievements. However, there are times when learning becomes halted in the interest of “appropriateness.” This is in reference to censorship. Censorship, by definition, is “the forbidding, blocking, limiting, or obstructing access to information for whatever reason.”(p248)1 This form of interference can prevent awareness and stint intellectual growth. Therefore, censorship should be used sparingly in education without political or religious motivation because the abuse of censorship negatively affects our education as a whole.
Buddhism is the philosophy of being awake and conscious in life. Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha, shared his wisdom with the world and believed that the path to enlightenment was a process of elimination. These eliminations can be conquered through a process called Zen. He believe it was the only way to get rid of the burdens human’s carry of, ignorance, desire and suffering. Buddhism is almost the complete opposite of our western world because our society requires us to act a certain way in order to thrive or even survive.