Quote:
Originally Posted by Angela  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.
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 with 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.
I'm not advocating the suppression of suffering; I'm an advocate of letting it go entirely. |
Thanks again Angela, I have a frustration button that you have now pushed. No problem. I shall not vent it.
I do not dispute anything you say about
yourself being positive. I can take a walk in your shoes and understand that it is true. However, it is only
part of the whole picture. Can you take a walk in mine and see a bigger picture? You have dismissed my suggestion that your attitude is dismissive. You dismissed it with an analogy of a grazed knee?
What do you think of the Woomara detention centre?
How can you possibly see suffering as a gift you give yourself? Tell that to the guards and survivors of Woomara and this example is only a small incident compared to the whole picture. It is devastating and you indicate insignificance.
The suffering will not cease until the causes of the suffering are rectified. The causes can be found in the suffering if only some could hear. The solutions are in taking responsibility for the cause and not by laying the blame on everything and everyone else or by burying one's head in the sand, having it up in the clouds or sweeping it under the carpet.
You recently said we were at opposite ends of the spectrum and I would certainly agree with that. You show me my opposite. The gift you give me is not in your words or in your opinions, but in your being. You teach me to understand those who push my buttons.