Comparing Buddhism And Suffering

Decent Essays
I think a response Buddha would give to my objection is that the outside world is out of our control, therefore, the probabilities of a desire not being achieved are big, because we cannot control them. Thus, if we cannot control the outside world and our desires, most of the times they will lead to suffering because they will not be achieved. Moreover, he would say that our life projects and what we plan for ourselves are also outside of our control, and they are just illusions which makes us believe that some things are good for us and achievable when in fact they are not. Thus, it does not bring real happiness.
To conclude, I disagree with Buddha about the Second Noble Truth. I do not think that desires are the cause of suffering, but a

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    A comparative analysis of the two religions Christianity and Buddhism shows many similarities and differences. Both religions believe in their own form of creator, they both have sacred text and symbols either the Christian bible or the 4 books of Buddha. The Christian faith believe in the cross, Buddhist have the Dharma. They both celebrate the life of their creator with different forms of…

    • 65 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chuang Tzu Taoism Analysis

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Schopenhauer speaks about how desires brings us misery. An illusion of life is created from the accumulating desires and ways to fulfill them. “Individual manifestations of the will strive for themselves and for the own satisfaction, under the illusion that they can be satisfied by accumulating for themselves what they deny to others. Such illusion as the basis for living is itself misery” (Kimpel, 77). These desires is what creates the small mind and the outlooks of the world and become unable to understand the ideas which transcend this world.…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The reason we are not happy is because of ourselves. It sounds a little intense but it makes sense at the same time. Happiness comes to those who understand that to gain it we must strive to live a happy life. To live a happy life, we have to fulfill our primal needs because without those we can’t focus on our inner selves. Then we have to understand that we aren’t always going to be happy if we don’t learn how to properly react towards our happy and unhappiness.…

    • 991 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Buddhism Dbq

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Buddha’s first sermon stated that “The Second Noble Truth is the Noble Truth of the Arising Sorrow…” (Doc. 1) It then continues to say that “… the craving of power…” led to misery. Buddha says that in order to end pain, one must stop craving all things, including power. Nobles anathematized these ideas because they themselves had great power and detested they idea of giving it up.…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How Can Happiness Be Found? From the beginning of humanity and the ability to think, humans have tried to understand and achieve true happiness. Philosophers, scholars, and everyday people have tried to figure out the answer but have had very little success. Philosopher and hermit, Thomas Merton, in the essay “Learning to Live”, claims that society’s ideal view of success will not make one happy rather, to truly find happiness one must learn who they are, learn what they have to offer and learn to make that offering valid.…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When it comes to the suffering of not getting what one’s desire is, Epictetus would tell us that we exert control over our own desires and should demand that things happen as they occur rather than how we wish them to occur. Regardless of the amount of effort you exert in the hopes of being happy or rich in this life it is impossible to achieve, unless your actions in past lives have generated that possibility. This suffering is more of an existential suffering- the dissatisfaction, isolation, and distress that occur from the awareness of our own mortality; this simple suffering we get when we do not attain what we desire leads to this existential suffering. Epictetus would advise that although one can not control what happens in the world,…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Enkiu's Wisdom

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Wisdom is gained through suffering and through overcoming the difficulties in life. Let go from unnecessary attachments, such as yearning for eternal life, and cherish what you have. Accept that the fact that although you’re the king and ⅔ of god, you are not going to live forever the your life is limited like everyone else and nature is more powerful than you. Accept your imperfection.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Buddha has advised everyone to abstain from killing. If everybody accepts this advice human beings would not kill each other. In the case where a person's life is threatened the Buddha says even then it is not advisable to kill out of self protection. In recent years many scientists and some religionists have used the expressions like 'humane killing, 'mercy killing', gentle killing' and 'painless killing' to justify the ending of a life. Buddhism can never accept these arguments because it is not how the killing occurs that is important but the fact that a life of one being is terminated by another.…

    • 115 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Short Story Of Gilgamesh

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Gilgamesh:I have been thinking a lot lately and this is why we are gathered here today. The topic is about happiness and I would like to know your personal opinion I believe Happiness is temporary. We should always have in mind that someday we will die soon but the most important thing is to enjoy every moment of our lives. I would like to share my personal experience, if I may. My friend whom I love has turned to clay.…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    b) Describe how the ethical teachings of Buddhism apply to the area of Bioethics, and explain how these teachings express the diverse nature of Buddhism (that come from the sources above). Bioethics focuses on ethical concerns associated with healthcare and medicine. It involves the consideration of both contemporary and traditional bioethical issues that have derived from advancements in modern technologies and uncertainty about how to respond to these issues. Non- Absolutism and Consequentialism: Non-absolutism and consequentialism are key concepts that influence Buddhist bioethical applications.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Emily Whelan 10/1/16 In The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus argues what the meaning of life really is. In this paper, I will explain the story of Sisyphus, and how it symbolizes the meaning of life. First, I will explain how Sisyphus was punished by doing meaningless labor for the rest of eternity. Then, I will break down how Camus describes Sisyphus as an absurd hero.…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    What is required for a person to have a “good life?” The answer is not quite clear. Some believe the good life consists solely in the experience of pleasure, while others think it consists of the acquisition of some set of goods. Another claim, one that consists of satisfying desires, is closest to my view. I will explain why the good life consists in satisfying desires, address an objection to my stance, and argue against the objection.…

    • 1620 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In his essays titled “On the Vanity of Existence”, “The World as Will and Representation”, and “On the sufferings of the world”, Arthur Schopenhauer discusses the inevitability of suffering in life, what causes it, and what we can do to ease it. In this case the suffering refers to our constant un-satisfaction with our lives because of our need to always have and want more. Throughout this essay I am going to be answering the questions of why suffering is inevitable and what we can do to ease our suffering. Schopenhauer states that our suffering is caused by our will as human beings, the fleeting nature of our lives, and the illusion that is our lives. He goes on to further state that we can ease the suffering of our lives through art, beauty,…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Suffering And Suffering

    • 1092 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Suffering is in the world all around us, it is a fact of life (2) and it can teach us many things that help us to become better human beings. People often blame God for all of the pain and tragedy in the world; if we are going to learn from suffering and allow it to teach us about the world whilst remaining faithful to God, we must understand that God created a good world and good human beings, His creation has been infected by the introduction of sin, which resulted in the creation of evil and suffering (4). Man was given the option to accept or reject God, Man chose to reject and that is what has caused him to sin and therefore create suffering (5). Part of learning about the world is understanding that people are not perfect, we learn this…

    • 1092 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The pursuit of happiness can be arduous if one’s interpretation of happiness is entitled to the idea of happiness depending on the ability to get what we want. Nevertheless, happiness is defined as showing pleasure or contentment with a person, situation, or the self. According to psychologist Dan Gilbert, however, happiness can be divided into two concepts: natural happiness and synthetic happiness. Gilbert defines natural happiness as what people get when they get what they wanted, and synthetic happiness as what people make when they don’t get what they wanted. Indeed, natural happiness can produce genuine happiness, but the flaw in this kind of happiness is that people don’t always get what they want.…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays