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In buddhism there is the four noble truths, a teaching about living life and facing death. In short, what many people afraid in death (or in life generally) is
by fendy3002 6y ago
In buddhism there is the four noble truths, a teaching about living life and facing death.
In short, what many people afraid in death (or in life generally) is the fear of losing, either losing their possession, losing their loved ones or how those loved ones will feel when losing you, losing your ability to do your job, etc.
In the teaching, if someone is able to overcome that fear (suffering / dissatisfaction), he / she can accept death as a cycle of living and live more relaxed life.
- devonkim 6y agoIn a more general sense, these are all various attachments people and society drives people to have. This isn’t to say that indifference to our world is the path that makes sense - this would be a fast way toward suicide. Rather, a life of intent and choosing our attachments with wisdom and understanding finds a good balance between being enslaved by our attachments and a belief that living is itself an attachment.
- csomar 6y agoDoesn't Buddhism say you can never day and you'll re-emerge in somebody else's body? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebirth_(Buddhism) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebirth_(Buddhism)
- BiteCode_dev 6y agoThe purpose of enlightenment is to eventually not re-emerge.
- edjrage 6y agoExactly. They say the Buddha was a very pragmatic man and the whole purpose of his practice was to find a way out of Samsara, the cycle of existence and suffering. I always wonder if he would have advocated for suicide if only he didn't believe in rebirth.
- peterwwillis 6y agoIt always struck me as very weird that Buddhists want to escape suffering. That's just saying you want to escape life. Suffering is beautiful and one of the best parts of life (the only thing better is momentarily overcoming it). But having neither is just sitting around waiting to die.
- edjrage 6y agoWell, it depends on what you mean by suffering (and some say suffering isn't the right translation for what they really mean). For buddhists, pain, sadness and grief are not suffering, they are indeed an inescapable part of life and are to be fully embraced with awareness and compassion. Suffering is an unnecessary, clingy, ego-centric (hyphenated to emphasize the buddhist concept) reaction to them.
- mlang23 6y agoDoesn't that also imply that life is a sort of punishment? Once you get the lesson, you are no longer forced to play the game?
- fendy3002 6y agoI'm not a good Buddhist, so this is what AFAIK. Chance to be reincarnated as human is low, it's rare so we are lucky to be born as one. As human we have a chance to gather good karma and attain enlightenment, thus ending the cycle. I think rather than punishment, it's more like a lesson. And dukkha is often mistranslated as "suffering", but in reality it's closer to dissatisfaction or unhappiness (sadness) rather than suffering.
- jayjader 6y agoI disagree that it must be seen as a punishment; once you've attained your degree you no longer need to go to school, but going to school probably wasn't a punishment in the first place. I guess it depends on your personal outlook. c.f. notions of transcending for other possible interpretations.
- gerland 6y agoDo not go gentle into that good night.