Elrond,
What you shared is interesting. But I don't quite understand how Life itself is full of suffering. Even Steve in fact did say in one of his blog entries that his belief system (when he wrote it) resembled Buddhism in significant features.
Buddhism virtually nihilifies the field of personal development. There's nothing to do to gain happiness now except meditate and attain to Nirvana. I mean, all worries like health, managing finances, relationships, developing the intellect etc. would just vanish if you are a true seeker of happiness, is it not so? But then we find that if we live a healthy life, we will be happy most of the time.
And, honestly speaking, to complain about the one gram of pain that comes with 3 grams of happiness (from a healthy lifestyle) is not really being mature, is it?
Also, many people will favor the 1-unit-pain-with-3-units-happiness scheme instead of the no-happiness-no-pain scheme (because Buddhism advocates shunyata or "zeroness"). If Buddhism advocates getting rid of attachment to the world, what is it trying to communicate when it says that by attaining nirvana one gets freed from all suffering. I mean, if you were really detached, you wouldn't even bother if the suffering was there or not.
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