Essay about Life is Suffering

Suffering is an obstacle that everyone has to confront at all times in their life. Most of time, suffering is painful. However, if people consider it as a chance for learning, they can gain a broader appreciation of life and success. They will grow one step further in the process of overcoming and stepping out from the disincentive. However, confronting suffering is not necessarily drawing the beneficial consequences: sometimes, suffering seems ultimately pointless. It may ruin people devastatingly and even lead them to the dehumanization by drawing out their negative hidden traits. A Long Way Gone--a book of Ishmael’s dreadful memories of being a boy soldier and the atrocious truth of the war--and Othello--a tragedy of jealousy, vengeance, and love--indicate those two

suffering is present in the world, but also accept the fact that there is nothing we humans can

Why do we suffer? Humans have spent years searching for meaning in the grievous events that happen in life. Some find comfort through religions that give reason to tragedy and teach that suffering is not always eternal. Others just accept that this is the way the world is and then do their best to adapt to that reality. Religions and philosophies, like Buddhism and stoicism, may try to teach its followers how to end their pain, because no one likes hurting. However, suffering is not necessarily a bad thing. It is painful, but suffering can bring new levels of meaning and appreciation to happiness. Pain is inevitable for anyone who cares about the people or things in his/her life. But if we were to eliminate suffering then life would become meaningless, because real joy is not possible without the risk of pain, and those who find contentment after enduring some tribulations appreciate their joy much more.

On the contrary, Schopenhauer perceives that the absurdity of life is more limited than Camus because the absurdity of the human existence comes from intellect. Moreover, the more intellectual one is, the more capable they are of realizing the inherent absurdity of human existence (Guigon, 2001). Thus, according to Schopenhauer, the more intellectually-inclined person is the one who suffers the most from mere existence. Taking this one step further, it can be argued that those of higher intellectual abilities are more likely to commit suicide as they understand the philosophy behind the act (Schopenhauer, 1966). Furthermore, Schopenhauer claims that, “At best we might see our way through the absurdity, and achieve peace by denying the Will and the futile desires that are its most immediate manifestations.” (Solomon, 1988) Schopenhauer acknowledged that the Will is absurd and therefore it should be denied. Schopenhauer saw the human Will as a window to the world behind the representation, which he defined as thing-in-itself. According to Schopenhauer, the entire world is the representation of a single Will, of which the individual Wills are phenomena. Schopenhauer states: “The world as idea is a mirror which reflects the Will. In this mirror the will recognizes itself in ascending grades

Suffering. All of us have encountered suffering and many of us wish we never would have to again; however, what many people do not see is that since we have suffering, we have happiness. One can not exist without the other. Without this feeling of suffering or unhappiness, we would not be able to understand happiness or even know it as a pleasant feeling, since we would never have experienced a life of unhappiness. Journalist David Brooks in “What Suffering Does” and Buddhist Monk Matthieu Ricard in “The Alchemy of Suffering” gave their own input upon the relationship between suffering and happiness. They seem to mention how every person endures suffering, but what is important is not the suffering itself, but the way a person changes or reacts to the suffering. While one may hate suffering, we have to understand that one can not be happy without having suffered. The characterization of emotional suffering as “rewarding” to people fails to account for individuals who have undergone the death of their spouse and have come out of it a changed person. In fact, in the 21st century, pervasive media advertising through television advances western cultural expectations of “perfection”, that in part advance suffering.

There are certain things that are in the control of the humans, at the same time there are several things, which are not under the human’s control. Thus, to persist a happy life, the humans are required to put an end their desire such that the satisfaction of

I believe suffering results from our separation from God. He is holy, all-powerful, all-loving, all that is good. Each day I find myself doing things that move me away from Him. Every time I sin, the world becomes a little bit worse. I can do no good thing apart from God. The more I separate myself from Him, the more likely I am to cause someone else harm or pain.

"A man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with mast and rigging gone" (returnofthekings.com). This quote by Arthur Schopenhauer means that a person cannot find happiness when they desire something they think will make them happy. Once they are able to achieve their goal, they are left in disappointment when their necessities vanish. This relates to Fahrenheit 451 and Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy about desire being a cause of unhappiness. Schopenhauer's philosophy relates to the desire for happiness in Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451. The characters in this novel are unhappy because they desire answers, books and desire to escape reality. Arthur believed that "desire never ends" (www.famouspeople.com). "[He] saw desire as the root of suffering and pain" (www.biography.com) the characters in the novel demonstrate just that.

Some may say that suffering doesn’t help, it only hurts, but in reality, it does help, it helps you mold you into the person you are today. One way this is shown is through the suffering of people throughout history. If you look back at groups of people throughout history you can see how suffering has changed and in cases improved conditions. Something else is that suffering really can change a person’s character and help them develop credibility.

Suffering is caused by desire. we do not just want something we get attached to something. we get attached to something that we want. Buddhist do not get attached to

In “On The Sufferings of the World,” Arthur Schopenhauer has a pessimistic outlook on life. He believes that suffering is a part of life and that without suffering, the world would be an even more miserable place. As many people may assume, life gets better as you grow older. Schopenhauer however disagrees with this statement and claims that life continually deteriorates. Before reading this piece I strongly believed that I was an optimist. I always like to see the bright side of situations but, Schopenhauer really gave me a different outlook on life, a pessimistic view, and I surprisingly agreed with many of his ideas. Although this is true, at the end of the reading, I disagreed with more ideas than not. Therefore, I do not think that Schopenhauer’s account on life is a good proposal to live by because not everyone is continuously miserable in their life and it is perfectly reasonable to have a positive outlook on life.

Too many people fail to achieve happiness because they try so hard to get it, it has come to the person and as some people know, sometimes too much happiness can be substandard and require too much suffering. The purpose of this essay is to persuade the audience that the argument (chasing happiness isn’t really worth it) is the best way to achieve maximum happiness.

There are many different perspectives on suffering with regard to its meaning, significance and purposes. Pope John Paul II (1984) wrote "On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering", that it centres on the notion of redemptive suffering - to remit one’s sins in order to save the soul from eternal suffering (damnation). Personally, I believe suffering can have a purpose. It can enrich life by giving us knowledge of both the good and the bad, arguably making us more appreciative of what we have . Indeed, James Stewart (2005) purports, "If there were no suffering, would there be compassion? If there were no discipline and hardship, would we ever learn patience and endurance? Construct a universe with no trouble in it and immediately you banish some of the finest qualities in the world."

"Extinguishing all forms of clinging and attachment… Suffering can be overcome through human activity simply by removing the cause of suffering" (The Big View).

It is common sense that all the human beings would like to live a happy life and they will spare no efforts in order to realize the purpose of really living a happy life in the end. However, different people have different definitions toward what a happy life is and they tend to have different standards as for how a life is that can be regarded as a happy life. There is no doubt that people will then try different means in order to pursue a happy life based on their definition toward what a happy life is. Therefore, the following will talk about the pursuit of a happy life from the perspectives of both Dalai Lama in The Art of Happiness and Viktor E. Frankl in Man’s Searching for Meaning, during which the experiences of some characters from the film Forrest Gump will be applied as evidence. Generally speaking, the pursuit of a happy life in the minds of Dalai Lama and Viktor E. Frankl can be achieved via experiencing sufferings and adversity. It is hoped that this analysis can help people understand what a happy is from a different point of view.