Discussion Could humans live without suffering?

[Harasaki]

So what if we lived in a reality where we could get nutrition from the sun, just like plants, and there are unlimited natural resourses so no one would live in misery, also everyone would have a good family and receive love, basicaly, it would be a reality similar to star trek.
Do you think there would still be people wanting to CTB? Is this a phenomena that is instrinsic to our reality or to the human condition?
Schopenhauer thought that human hapiness oscillates like a pendulum, because we'll always want something more, when we get what we want, we are on one extreme of the pendulum, the euphoria, after that we get used to it and it doesn't bring us happiness anymore, and that's the equilibrium position the neutral state that brings us the feeling of boredom, and then we crave for something new, and that is the state that brings us suffering, the desite for something you don't have or can't have.
Under that point of view even in a world where there are not external factors bringing us suffering, our human condition would do the job, so it would be impossible for humans to live without suffering, we would just get used to the perfect world and want more.
If that is true, the only ones that could live without ever suffering are the resigned ones, if you accept your reality, even if it's miserable, and not want/hope for anything else, then that person would never suffer. That sounds impossible to me...
What are your thoughts on this?

 

[gomenasai]

I think that perfect happiness doesn't exist even for the most privileged people. Everybody experiences some degree of a trauma (ranging from a very minor to a very significant), even the luckiest people. So where there is life, there will always be suffering.

 

[Rational man]

I think suffering is inherently part of human existence until our cessation.

 

[StreetSweeper]

Suffering is a large part of what makes us human. Not trying to say that like its a good thing by the way. No matter what senario humans find themselves in, as long as its still this reality, they will find a way to suffer.

Think about a baby who was just born who cant stop crying. The baby cant stop crying because slight discomfort is litterally the most horrible thing they have ever expereinced in their entire life. It has no concept of the world its shot into, and we enter it kicking screaming and crying. I compare this to a perfect eutopia. If humans went generarions without suffering because all needs and wants are taken care and all health probems solved with no effort required on our part, we would become extremly fragile. Like the flowers not smelling the way you remembered them one day could be so tramatic that it collapses your entire world and makes you suicidal. Unless we magically lost the ability to even possibly expereince suffering, humans would find a way lol.

 

[evolutionerror]

Suicide is in very large part a human-only practice. There is evidence of self-sacrifice in the animal kingdom, but nothing that even resembles the act of suicide. Although, suffering is not a human-only concept as we can see plenty of examples in the animal kingdom of depression and sadness.

A life without sadness or suffering would be the same as a life without happiness or joy. We as humans are more acutely aware of both, and are able to form logic and complex concepts around both. As they say, ignorance is bliss.

 

[FuneralCry]

No, I agree and believe that it would be impossible for humans to feel always satisfied, I think that even if we lived in a different reality like the one that you mentioned, I believe that many people would likely still want to ctb because of how pointless everything is and some people would still find existing tedious. In my case I could never want to live no matter what my circumstances are, I see no point and value to life and I simply prefer the sound of non existence. Suffering will always exist in some form, it's inevitable and I think that many people would rather take control over when they die rather than waiting for other causes to end their existence.

 

[Hirokami]

All humans will suffer one way or another, and a large part of that suffering is due to society. Humans make each other suffer. One would be hard pressed to find a person that wasn't hurt by another. And the funny thing is, being alone causes people to suffer, too.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Reminds me of The Matrix when agent Smith says the first version was designed as a perfect world where no one suffered but it failed because no one would accept the programme.

It's impossible to say really. I suppose those of us who entertain the possibility of an afterlife picture heaven like this.

Maybe if we were born into such a 'paradise', we would be happy. Perhaps it would just never occur to us to be miserable if everyone else was happy and thriving and there were no more worries about anything. Maybe we wouldn't want more if we weren't encouraged to do so- no more competition to get the latest phone etc.

Still, I can't imagine even a 'perfect' world without inequality. Humans have so many different characters and character flaws. You can bet in this 'perfect' world, there will still be a minority that figure out how to exploit everyone else. Unless I suppose all our 'nasty' traits are bred out of us.

 

[Arrow]

No. Assuming all your needs were being met you would be happy and you would not want to kill yourself.

 

[RUPA]

no. Life is Dukkha. Life is suffering. To be specific, human life is suffering. That's what Buddha said. human life= suffering

 

[LaVieEnRose]

It's already like that. Everyone experiences pain at points but not everyone's lives are marked by suffering.