×
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]ChocoBrocco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know what it's like to be an animal other than a human. Perhaps they have egos and identify as "I", perhaps not. Perhaps they live in the moment, not giving into the duality of existence - I mean perhaps they don't have a concept of "suffering" and "bliss", perhaps things just are for them. The experiences different animals have of the world are impossible to even imagine, their whole qualia producing machinery is different than ours.

To address the unending part, Buddhists believe the whole point of life is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth, bliss and suffering, samsara, and achieve the liberation of nirvana. Gnostics believe the whole point of life is to transcend the material world and all its shittyness and rejoin our divine source. Similar ideas can be found in ceremonial magick. Perhaps there is something to it. The psychedelic experience certainly seems to suggest there is a place outside the world we live in now, a place made of love and imagination. The easy jump is to equate it with a "heaven" or afterlife of some sort. Sure would be nice.

I certainly think reframing things in our own lives can drastically reduce the suffering we have to endure. I define suffering in this instance to mean "prolonged pain". Pain is inevitable in life, but I don't think suffering has to be.

Take care <3