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Originally Posted by Maguru  Angela, no-one suggests you should not feel positive. Your life experiences have brought you to where you are. It works exactly the same with negative. Life experiences dictate and create suffering. It is real. It is valid. |
While I agree with you that suffering is "real" (well, as real as any other problems
), I completely disagree with you that my life experiences have brought me to where I am, in regards to a positive attitude. It's not my
experiences, that have me feeling the way I do, Maguru; it's my
thoughts about my experiences, and it's my
choices. Same thing with people who suffer. It's not their experiences -- nope! not even the 9/11 victims -- it's their thoughts about what happened that day, and what they choose going forward.
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Your attitude, as strong and as positive as it is, comes across as dismissive of others' suffering.
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Well, I think of pain and suffering the way I think of a little child who comes to me crying. If she just fell down and skinned her knee, and she comes to me crying, then I will comfort her and treat her wounds and do whatever I can to ease her pain. But if she fell down
last month and skinned her knee, and she comes to me crying about the tragedy of how she skinned her knee, then I'm not doing her any favors by agreeing that her skinned knee is a tragedy.
Pain hurts, that's for sure! And suffering does, too; but pain'll feel better when it quits hurtin', while suffering is the gift you keep on giving to yourself. I absolutely acknowledge one's right to do that, if that's what they choose! I do not begrudge anyone their suffering. And if by "dismissive" you mean: "encouraging others to see that it's unnecessary, and to see how it gets in the way of living a life you love," then okay, I will accept being dismissive.
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If it is suppressed by trying to be positive, it festers and expands.
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I'm not advocating the
suppression of suffering; I'm an advocate of letting it go entirely.
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Angela, your posts have pushed my button since I joined this forum and now I know why. I can remove it now. You are a gift to me, Angela. Thankyou.
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You're welcome! Being free feels good, doesn't it?
