[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by PrimaryErn

I hope you'l pardon me if I say that unless you are a saint or supremely enlightened, that nobody thinks that way (except the saints, etc), and nature doesn't work that way.

nature is very into giving to each other - even their lives are given to each other. competition is a human mind concept. when we walked in nature that provided tons of fish or strawberries we didn't have to compete to wonder about someone else having more because all our needs were met in nature. Also we as humans didn't always think there wasn't enough of something that we had to take it from our neighbor.

When something competes and loses it doesn't learn from the experience by experiencing joy - it learns from the experience by experiencing pain. It could have done better, but it didn't. It could have snatched the fish from the other bird, but it was too slow, and now it goes hungry- next time better fly faster! It could have studied more for the position, but didn't - next time study more.

this is human society stuff not nature. the bird that tried to get the fish the other bird got just goes about getting another fish. the bird doesn't sit around thinking there are not enough or is missing something.

Seriously and honestly - the last ten people in your life who came to you after losing a job interview to another candidate, or losing a race, or losing the girl they were chatting up to that other better-looking guy - how many of them were full of joy?

having to have a job is artificial and helps keep us stuck in the "not enough" mentality.

I'm not so ignorant that I don't understand the point, but saying what you just said with a straight face - I mean, if the end result of failure is joy, when the result of success if joy, why compete for anything? What's the motivation to human nature that moves us?

all attachment causes suffering. if one is attached to getting a certain job and some else gets it, there will be suffering. but if you are like the bird, you can go about finding a job after missing one of the possible jobs. the bird does not get attached to getting a particular fish to the point that if it can't, there will be no suffering.