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Suffering, Not So Cut and Dry?
Consciousness = awareness.
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I realize how awfully all one way, cut and dry, this may sound. Parsing the issue into two categories is misleading if we misunderstand how the correlation process works. Correlations are never cut and dry, even though the words we use tend to be. White is white and black is black, for example. Correlations only work if seen pointing to things ‘on balance’, wherein the evidence (i.e. your observation) leans at least a bit more one way than the other. (Naturally, this approach makes correlations a uniquely [chref=21]indistinct and shadowy [/chref] process.)
Thus, ‘living is suffering’ is like a teeter-totter, where ‘on balance’ living is suffering – the yang outweighs the yin. Most of this ‘suffering in living’ is taken in stride, borne by each of us as part of living and no big deal. In fact we are rather unconscious of it. The only suffering we really notice is the tip of the iceberg - the extremes - that trigger thoughts such as “I’m suffering”, or “they are suffering”. Suffering below that threshold is at a 'biological level', out of sight and out of mind. Nevertheless, it still drives us (and all other animals) to do all that we do. Pain and suffering, along with pleasure and contentment, are equal opportunity motivators and educators.
For example, the lack of contentment, however subtle, drives us to go out and act. The lack of contentment, however subtle, is suffering. The greater the lack, the greater the suffering. As TTC puts it, [chref=46]there is no disaster greater than not being content[/chref]. Once we start moving toward that which promises to make us content we feel a happiness of hope. Shopping is an obvious example. Subtle examples are countless, so I’ve leave that to your personal reflections.
I imagine this feels like a bleak view to many, especially Americans whose cultural paradigm espouses a particularly positive ‘anyone can be president’ view of life. Who wants to [chref=39]refer to themselves as 'solitary', 'desolate', and 'hapless'[/chref] anyway! It is interesting, though, how this parallels a core view of many (all?) religions of old. Religions recognize the reality of suffering and each offers various reasons why and remedies for our suffering.
Long ago I asked myself the question, "why don't animals have religion?". The only solid answer I could live with was, "they don't need it!". Though they suffer pain the same as we do, their suffering is out of sight and out of mind (for the most part anyway). We and other animals are the same biologically, except for that part operating between our ears. We feel the same pain, but for us, the pain drives thoughts of self, self pity, empathetic ‘group’ self pity, future and past possibilities, and imagination in general which ups the ante for our species. In other words, thinking about our discontent or pain amplifies our discontent and pain. Religion is simply thought, and its offspring speech and writing, attempting to re-balance things. Ironic when you consider thought gets us into this mess in the first place. That is what makes [chref=43]the teaching that uses no words[/chref] such a revolutionary approach.
Speaking of revolutionary approaches… Since my earliest days of youth I remember looking to nature for leadership and examples of what was ‘true’. I’ve always distrusted human advice and leadership in pretty much every aspect of life. I’ve just always felt that people were actually saying what they thought was best for them and projecting that view on to me (and certainly I do the same). Our primary difficulty lies in seeing our nature through our nature. It’s like an eye trying to see itself. We are innately biased by the human nature we are trying to understand objectively. And yet seeing ourselves impartially is essential for self understanding. Whew, we have our work cut out for us.