Is there more joy than suffering in the world?

[Cadcam]

I am at a stage in life where I see all the chatter online and I look out my door and it is quiet.

 

It gets me thinking about the life we experience. I once mourned that the world is not led by kindness and a voice asked me if they should destroy it, I said no.

 

So now I wonder, as I get along in years, experiencing the suffering of age and disease, and seeing it around me, I ask: is there more joy than suffering? Have I made a mistake in saying not to destroy this place?

[Ascetic]

Much more joy, once you're born it's basically you exist for all of Eternity.

I would say moments like now are very important, because I don't think it will be possible to ever become more psychic or gain shamanic essence/qualities. 

Not that I'm saying to work hard, but a lot of people seem to bring up how pointless it is to be alive right now. Like there are plenty of other settings or creations that could be way more exciting.

It's that exact landmark in civilization with a human species that denies any psychic ability, rebukes their Ego's, and see's spiritual truths as more valuable. Humans have not accurately climbed the ladder, what we consider Science is more like the study of Divinity, and not any pursuit of actual technology.

Maybe the next windfall or step for evolution will be Psionics or maybe humans will just become more Technocratic. I have seen an alternate world, one where things do settle into a Technocracy and Targeted Gene Alteration is part of life.

Fascinating then is it, that even such a Scientific Civilization could not explain why the amount of Psychic Power in the Sky or Space between particles was increasing.

By my own Enquiry, it was revealed that errors or minute shifts in Genetics, dig into Psychic Grottos just like how roads rip apart connected forests. Humans have so much to look forward to.

We live our whole lives far away from these ideas, but just like us: they don't seem to have the choice of invisibility.

The most obvious supremacy is that the value of a Shaman's soul only grows as the Universe gets older. There is always a mark made, and a reward for being alive.

Perhaps things will become more Psychic over time, Ego's will become more important than logical truths, and the Nobility of Souls will become like the Nobility of Man where his people be divided by Wealth.

It's not something we'll notice now, or maybe not even in our lifetime. But people find plenty of similar reasons to be alive, and by the wish fulfilling jiva or the bethelit spark of divine stimulus: real reward and satisfaction. 

Where is our consciousness even supposed to go?

Flesh melted into dirt, and Souls are whisked away in many Mythos. There is almost no escape from the Gravity of a Larger Origin; even if the Self is accurate and all this is unreal, then the pull of something this Large must be truly Enigmatic and cause for Fright.

Hardly do I notice someone finding it fair to torture beings that have already passed. Nor do I find that the luminescence of souls becomes less visible because of death. 

An Emotionally Unstable Necromancer can easily restore all intelligences anywhere or a Kind Esper might find it prosperous to lead lost souls to Holy Realms. There is only goodness then, that all beings who live and die will be lead towards a brighter life. Angelic substance is merely not possible to avoid.

In Byzantine Psionics (really early Psionics that only require one person) there is even greater benefit in not being where you want to be. Suffering made worthwhile and with real quantifiable reward.

There is real joy in everything here and countless prosperities to look forward to.

Even Ascetics meditate so they are not perturbed by Warped Princes and Ruined Gods after death: hoping that they may be born an Emperor or something else in their next life. And for what? Ascetics who deem their agony as more important, and they still find breath to preserve themselves.

Legacy, Legacy, Legacy: It is this own derelict thoughtform that led to me renounce worship of the Self and continue my satisfactions in prayer towards Deities and Demigods.

Edited September 14, 2024 by Emaciated Ascetic

[snowymountains]

Can joy exist without the existence of suffering ? In life we experience both.

 

One can come to terms with the polarity of joy-suffering. Imo this is the healthiest.

One can try to bypass it a la Buddhism, with varying degrees of dissociation to both joy and suffering.

 

Expecting only one or the other though, will likely lead to filtering life in a polarised way.

 

But above all, a masochistic view that suffering is "worth" it because there's joy too, is not healthy. It's not "worth it", it's just inevitable sometimes.

[Cadcam]

Yes we can experience joy without suffering, and vice versa. I tire of people saying we can't have this without that. We appreciate it more when the other comes, that is all.

[Ascetic]

Joy can also be artificial, I doubt anyone has tried to achieve a Runic Bliss, but there is a rune called Joy that makes one happier.

[silent thunder]

At some unrecalled point in this individual awareness' journey of this manifestation in life "i" realized that i no longer craved to create, find, or seek to achieve and maintain a state of joy, or happiness.  It was paradigm shifting... but not 'earth shattering'.  It was utterly simple, like fog dissipating... revealing.  It was as simple as breathing without thinking.

 

This occured while experiencing true contentment. 

 

The pivot of the revelation revolved about the realization that joy and happiness, in my case, seemingly required a level of energy input and a certain compliance of effort and a 'propping up' of the energies involved to remain in and to maintain such a state. 

 

Joy and Happiness, for this one, are slightly skewed to the manic side.  Too heightened to abide in perpetually.

Whereas contentment is a release.  A settling in to what is... as it is... an effortless abiding in the raw, the natural... the ground state of beingness that requires no upkeep, or propping up.

 

So from that point on my praxis, my cultivation shifted into one of settling into the natural essence of being.

The action, if there is one, is release.

 

Let all fall away and what remains, will be one's natural essential nature.

[Cadcam]

1 hour ago, silent thunder said:

At some unrecalled point in this individual awareness' journey of this manifestation in life "i" realized that i no longer craved to create, find, or seek to achieve and maintain a state of joy, or happiness.  It was paradigm shifting... but not 'earth shattering'.  It was utterly simple, like fog dissipating... revealing.  It was as simple as breathing without thinking.

 

This occured while experiencing true contentment. 

 

The pivot of the revelation revolved about the realization that joy and happiness, in my case, seemingly required a level of energy input and a certain compliance of effort and a 'propping up' of the energies involved to remain in and to maintain such a state. 

 

Joy and Happiness, for this one, are slightly skewed to the manic side.  Too heightened to abide in perpetually.

Whereas contentment is a release.  A settling in to what is... as it is... an effortless abiding in the raw, the natural... the ground state of beingness that requires no upkeep, or propping up.

 

So from that point on my praxis, my cultivation shifted into one of settling into the natural essence of being.

The action, if there is one, is release.

 

Let all fall away and what remains, will be one's natural essential nature.

That's interesting. I too no longer feel joy or happiness.  It stems from a time my friends all turned their backs on me, and I thought "all I want is to give them my love" I realized this was codependent and selfish,  and I abandoned the desire to inspire joy in them. Something changed inside of me, I became more centered and focused on my solar plexus. Now I sit and don't oner reach. I'm content, but miss joy

[stirling]

My experience is that this moment is always, and has to be, perfect just as it is. Our suffering is from our clinging to a story of how things could be different, or our attachment to a story about how things were in the past. What is impermanent - joy, suffering, cats, lightning, bicycles and everything else - comes and goes, finding its own balance like all other dualities.

 

Having said that, there IS a simple joy in the relief of not having to get caught in the machinations of the world, or in realizing that you were briefly caught and don't have to be, in the same way that there is a sort of joy in a glass of cold water on a hot day. If there isn't a simple joy in just BEING I'd come back around to some bodhicitta/metta practices (from Buddhism) that train in directing loving kindness/compassion outward. There is a point where that training has its own kind of gradual awakening, and just begins to generate of its own accord.

[silent thunder]

2 hours ago, Cadcam said:

That's interesting. I too no longer feel joy or happiness.  It stems from a time my friends all turned their backs on me, and I thought "all I want is to give them my love" I realized this was codependent and selfish,  and I abandoned the desire to inspire joy in them. Something changed inside of me, I became more centered and focused on my solar plexus. Now I sit and don't oner reach. I'm content, but miss joy

This awareness wants to be very clear in that "i" still experience joy and happiness, they arise and fall away regularly, as do sadness, anger and the full gamut of emotions.

 

Indeed at times in this current phase of life, emotions are very intense when they arise, though there is no longer an identification with them as if they were some intrinsic part of who "i" am in essence, as if they had anything to do with some kind of perpetuating self in its natural state.   Reality is awareness.  Awareness is what is.  And baseline awareness manifests, or is experienced as a bouyant contentment of late.

 

On the flip side of Joy, suffering was mentioned... and in my case it seems important to also mention the shift that has occurred regarding suffering for my awareness.  This body lived in perpetual pain for 5-7 years in the late 90's into the early 2000's.  Walked with a cane on so-so days, was confined to a chair and hopping around on my one good leg on bad days.  Perpetual pain was a constant and there were bouts of intense extremes of pain that induced intense suffering.  This i found out eventually revolved around the loss of freedom, mobility and carefree not having to consider getting up to do any random task and the sense that the pain was out of place and should not be what was my reality.

 

Yet it was.  The pain was there and ceaseless for a time.

 

But one moment, yeeears into the experience, awareness experienced a piercing crack of realization, which was... "if one has a body, there will be discomfort, and there may even be extreme pain.  But this does not mean "i" must suffer."  And in that moment, "i" released into my natural state and suffering fell off (even though the pain remained).

 

The moment "i" released into beingness, suffering dropped away without any effort.  As simple as dropping a heavy bag and walking away from it.

 

Pain is a sensation, i realized.  Suffering is optional.  It is sustained.  Maintained and in my situation, suffering was layered on top of pain within a state of mind that revealed itself as a state that required participation and effort to maintain.  And so, in the eventual experience of radical release into beingness, when "i" no longer had the energy to maintain it, it fell away with the rest of what is not essence and "i" was left in a state of contentment.  Utterly neutral, no maintenance required.  Any attempt at maintenance was a disturbance of sorts. 

 

The image that arose was a man, knee deep in water among lily pads.  And he was attempting to smooth out the waves on the pond with a paddle.  Yet every sweep of his paddle, intending to smooth out the water, created the very ripples he sought and manufactured effort to try and still...

 

Emotions arise and receed, like tidal/conditional forces and none are sustainable (even if inclined) any longer and lately no emotional state are sought out to be manufactured or sustained.  Like clouds, they arise and dissipate among the conditions of life, but "i" no longer associate any sense of self with them.

 

Eventually this haiku synthesized from the experience... regarding radical release into natural beingness.

 

Muddiest Waters.

Left undisturbed by process.

Rest in Clarity.

                 ^{(contentment)}

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2024 by silent thunder

[Cadcam]

The only emotions I experience are sadness fear and grief, from witnessing the world's imperfections and suffering. 

[Ascetic]

19 minutes ago, Cadcam said:

The only emotions I experience are sadness fear and grief, from witnessing the world's imperfections and suffering. 

Pretty, have you tied reaching into the emotional sea. something visceral about having mass, more suffering and more imperfection than others. A really old an Archaic might that people no longer find reason for pursuing.

No one looks and there are hardly any gazers in the emotional sea. A weird time when emotions were necessary to be psychic. Now purity is all people stack it seems.

Edited September 15, 2024 by Emaciated Ascetic