ramblings on life, death and suffering
so, I have been reading about Buddhism..
I came upon something that bothered me..
some Buddhists are so adamant about never taking life, that they allow lice and fleas to live on them
I imagine if they had a pet they would allow that animal to be infested.
which would cause that animal suffering...
ending suffering is the prime directive, if you will, of Buddhism
yet, sometimes living is suffering
sometimes allowing something to live is suffering
allowing a tick to live can cause suffering in lyme disease.
Parasites in your intestines cause suffering if not expelled and killed..
Then I ponder the value of life.
When an animal is suffering and no surgery will save them or allow them to regain their original spunkiness, we allow them to die with dignity.. we kill them, we take their life, we end it
and in my eyes that is much more humane than making someone with cancer live until the cancer eats them away..
or AIDS
or Alzheimer’s
or any disease that takes us slowly and cruelly creating a slow suffering
when we have the capability to help a person die
as we have the medical science to help a person live.
why does it make a difference?
why does it result in a judgment?
Life is good and death is bad?
depends on your suffering I guess...
When death is a gift, I say give them death.
When life is torture, give them the gift the death.
We give life to those who are about to loose it: in open heart operations, organ transplants, and blood transfusions...
Of course the choice of death will have to be carefully litigated just as the right to live is.
If a person is deemed sound mind and body and the suffering they feel can not be alleviated by surgery and even surgery can not give them back their original spunkiness, why don't we allow them to die with dignity as we do our pets?
Why is death seen as so bad?
Other than we will miss that person terribly when they cross over?
So then is denial of death merely a selfish act to keep a person living so the living can have them around?
I guess when you are afraid of your spirit,
of your soul,
of your creator,
your God,
death is the ultimate cruelty..
Frankly, I am not afraid of death, I lived through experiences when death would have been welcomed and I survived.
Hell can not be something that exists save in the perversion of the human mind.
From the times I left my body to escape this existence I was embraced in peace and that is what I know of the hereafter.
I trust my own experience far more than the workings of other minds.
I do know within my own mind is the propensity to judge everything I could ever possibly do as wrong
therefore I have some understanding of where the hellfire and damnation comes from,
yet, I also know the me that exists beyond the mind
beyond the emotion
I encourage all to find their own inner self
their own awareness
maybe there would be less judgment
less need to force people into suffering for the sake of their own pleasures...
nothing is absolute
even the creed to never take a life
I came upon something that bothered me..
some Buddhists are so adamant about never taking life, that they allow lice and fleas to live on them
I imagine if they had a pet they would allow that animal to be infested.
which would cause that animal suffering...
ending suffering is the prime directive, if you will, of Buddhism
yet, sometimes living is suffering
sometimes allowing something to live is suffering
allowing a tick to live can cause suffering in lyme disease.
Parasites in your intestines cause suffering if not expelled and killed..
Then I ponder the value of life.
When an animal is suffering and no surgery will save them or allow them to regain their original spunkiness, we allow them to die with dignity.. we kill them, we take their life, we end it
and in my eyes that is much more humane than making someone with cancer live until the cancer eats them away..
or AIDS
or Alzheimer’s
or any disease that takes us slowly and cruelly creating a slow suffering
when we have the capability to help a person die
as we have the medical science to help a person live.
why does it make a difference?
why does it result in a judgment?
Life is good and death is bad?
depends on your suffering I guess...
When death is a gift, I say give them death.
When life is torture, give them the gift the death.
We give life to those who are about to loose it: in open heart operations, organ transplants, and blood transfusions...
Of course the choice of death will have to be carefully litigated just as the right to live is.
If a person is deemed sound mind and body and the suffering they feel can not be alleviated by surgery and even surgery can not give them back their original spunkiness, why don't we allow them to die with dignity as we do our pets?
Why is death seen as so bad?
Other than we will miss that person terribly when they cross over?
So then is denial of death merely a selfish act to keep a person living so the living can have them around?
I guess when you are afraid of your spirit,
of your soul,
of your creator,
your God,
death is the ultimate cruelty..
Frankly, I am not afraid of death, I lived through experiences when death would have been welcomed and I survived.
Hell can not be something that exists save in the perversion of the human mind.
From the times I left my body to escape this existence I was embraced in peace and that is what I know of the hereafter.
I trust my own experience far more than the workings of other minds.
I do know within my own mind is the propensity to judge everything I could ever possibly do as wrong
therefore I have some understanding of where the hellfire and damnation comes from,
yet, I also know the me that exists beyond the mind
beyond the emotion
I encourage all to find their own inner self
their own awareness
maybe there would be less judgment
less need to force people into suffering for the sake of their own pleasures...
nothing is absolute
even the creed to never take a life