Hi Arlo, One useful (to me) idea I took from my time in the Gurdjieff 'work' was that of the distinction between voluntary and involuntary suffering. When I was first interviewed by a very old man to enter that 'work' one of the first things he said to me was 'Life is pain' and I think this sentiment is also part of the Buddhist tradition, though not stated in the same way.
Involuntary suffering, such as the interminable considering or worrying that we are prone to, limits our freedom, is not useful and should be seen for what it is, struggled against and avoided. On the other hand, voluntary suffering, making the effort, extends life. -Peter On 22/01/2008, Arlo Bensinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > [Platt] > I think it suggests that it would be wrong to completely eliminate > suffering. > > [Arlo] > Suffering is always more acceptable when it is happening to someone else. > > I've always had a problem with the imprecision of Pirsig's words you > quoted. I certainly agree that in order to know love we must know > loss, in order to feel joy we must also feel sadness. But a blanket > statement about "suffering" being necessary for species to evolve > leaves me wondering about the role of medicine and treating, or > abolishing, diseases. Should a cancer patient not be given drugs or > treatment to stop his/her suffering? Should we not seek to improve > the ergonomics of our chairs so as to eliminate the suffering of > sitting for long periods of time at work? So I just think we need to > be a little more precise about what forms of suffering we don't want > to eliminate or ease, or what forms (e.g. leprosy) we may want to > eliminate. > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
