The Central Psychological Insight is that suffering is caused by mistaking untruth for truth.
The Central Guide for Emotional Well-being is that the measure of your suffering is the indication of how much untruth you have accepted.
The Central Healing Question is: What have you accepted as true which isn't?
The Most Productive Place to start looking for it is where you would least like for it to be found.
2
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
7 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Suffering is being married to a batterer....you airy-fairy "oh woe is me" types need to wake up!
AnneWimsey
Level 9
Jan 4, 2021
0
I elaborate with "accepting as true, which MAY NOT be true"...excessive certainty...
seattlepanda
Level 7
Jan 4, 2021
1
Reality stands independent of our awareness of it or response to it.
Certainty is not a measure of truth. The cessation of suffering is a much better indicator.
The first three lines of the above seem to derive from Buddhism's Four Noble truths, in which case:
The "central psychological insight" is that suffering is also caused by desire.
The cure for desire is detachment of the ego from the material world.
I freely admit that I have not achieved and probably never will be able to achieve this. I like my stuff too much. I also really enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. But I accept that suffering goes along with that. All life is suffering, and if we don't accept the bitter with the sweet, we're moral cowards. Death is inevitable; loss is inevitable; suffering is inevitable; all things are transitory. How we cope with these truths is what shows our character.
Paul4747
Level 8
Jan 4, 2021
2
Pretty much a hundred percent of what we know through modern science was unavailable for consideration twenty-five hundred years ago.
If the Buddha could have known what is easily accessible to you and me, he may have spoken slightly differently.
A good example is the Dalai Lama’s full embrace of science. The passing of time and the human tendency to venerate the ancients have made the cessation of suffering seem like an unreachable goal for us “ordinary” folk. But the Dalai Lama speaks only in the simplest of terms; that a little mental training and a dash of kindness can have profound results.
Looking at what’s available today, it appears to me that fulfilling natural desires, such as hunger, is not an impediment, but holding on to assumptions that are not based in reality is.
In the end, we get what we are willing to settle for, and as far as I can tell, there’s nothing wrong with settling wherever we are willing to.
From my own personal experience this is profoundly true.
silverotter11
Level 9
Jan 4, 2021
1
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
Share this post
Categories
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.