In essence, yes. More accurately, how one reacts to pain.
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In essence, yes. More accurately, how one reacts to pain.
I can.
I guess I could say that any reaction creates an attachment between person/object. So in that sense, yeah how we react to it, makes sense.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
So what do you think is the solution, just react differently?
Do you think everyone can do that?
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
But not everyone can.
See what I said in post #23 I clarify (I think).
I am happy for your credentials
. My wife studied Social Work (MA) and minored in Psychology. Me? General Studies- science focus (AA) and Anthropology (AA), currently working on my BA.
RestlessSoul
Well-Known Member
There is a quote, sometimes attributed to the Dalai Lama, but probably older than that, which says “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.”
I take it to mean that, while we are powerless over many of the factors in our lives which cause us pain, we do have power over how we respond to that pain. We can give in to despair, we can wallow in self pity, or we can detach and let go. Anyone who has ever had toothache however, will know just how difficult it can sometimes be, to put this principle into practice.
Not dissimilar in principle to the Shakespeare line, “A thing is neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it’s so.”
*smiles* Since this isn’t a debate forum, you essentially blocked my being permitted to answer your question.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I believe we will continue to have challenges in the next life but they will be different kinds of challenges. Most of the challenges here result from the material world. Diseases, accidents, injuries, job losses, economic insecurity, loss of loved ones, these only exist because this is a material world. Since the next world in not a material world we won't have the same kinds of challenges.
I do not believe in a heaven where we just float around in the clouds doing nothing, or worshiping God for all of eternity. That would be hell for me.
I believe we will still have work to do in the next world. I would be really bored if I had no work to do.“Those who have passed on through death, have a sphere of their own. It is not removed from ours; their work, the work of the Kingdom, is ours; but it is sanctified from what we call ‘time and place.’ Time with us is measured by the sun. When there is no more sunrise, and no more sunset, that kind of time does not exist for man. Those who have ascended have different attributes from those who are still on earth, yet there is no real separation.”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London, pp. 95-96
Yes. I do. Personalities are fluid.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
No problem, because I think I already know what your answer would be.
I disagree wholeheartedly, but since this is not a debate forum I will restrain myself...
Wait... Am I debating by answering the question? Don't want to be breaking any rule.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Just because one person or even many people can do something do you think that means that everybody can do it?
Yes. I do. Shouldn't you think so, as a psychologist?
It's an extension of the Philosophy of Existentialism for me.
So no conservatives.
Not unless you disagree with the askers response to the same question.
Besides, the question wasn’t directed at you. It was directed and me now I can’t respond in disagreement since she already made her position known.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
My first major in college was anthropology, but that was a really long time ago. Then I studied Spanish and then geography. I have an MA in Geography and then much later I went back to school for the MA in Counseling Psychology. I never used my psychology degree for very long since I stayed in the field I had always worked in, cartography.See what I said in post #23 I clarify (I think).
I am happy for your credentials
I don't think that people consciously choose to suffer although there could be an unconscious component. 95% of what is in our minds is subconscious. When people say that suffering is a choice that are blaming people for suffering. I cannot imagine blaming someone for what is in their subconscious which they have no control over. No mental health professional ever even implied that my suffering was my fault. They might have if I was just sitting back and wallowing in it, but I never did that. I fought it tooth and nail for many years.
There is a hereditary component to depression, it is called endogenous depression. Both my parents were depressed as were my sister and brother. The only way to treat it is with drugs but I went that route and almost died as a result. I finally got the help I needed from homeopathic medicine, in combination with therapy and 12 step groups. That was a long time ago.
Sometimes a person finds themselves in a life situation that cannot be changed without causing more problems so the serenity prayer is in order. I try to change the tings I can and accept the things I cannot change.
I appreciate your full response, but did want to reply here. I'm not saying it's a "choice", but I am saying All have the capacity to change in some way as to make it more palatable.
Fate sets the course, but We navigate the waves.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
As a logical person I realize that everybody cannot do what some people can do. It just makes no sense at all. What is philosophically 'possible' is not reality.