To live = to suffer. Agree or disagree?

Question

This is like a fundamental belief i hold about life. its that you cannot go through life without some amount of suffering. its pretty much impossible in my view. some will obviously suffer wayyy more than others of course but even those who have it all in life they tend to have bad mental illnesses or insecurities that still cause them some amount of suffering.

So this is what's called an axiomatic value that i hold and cannot be argued away from. do you also share this belief? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiom

Here's german philosopher Frederic Nietzsche who also shares my belief

IslaTheWitch · Accepted Answer

In general, I agree.

As we share some experiences, you should easily get what I mean.

I believe that life is suffering. But It is not because it was planned like that. Life wasn't planned to have any meaning, bad or good. Was created to spread, grow and develop.

And here we are, currently the highest forms of life on this planet. Humans, people, intelligent (mostly), technologically developed, and civilised. Our lives are full of suffering we inflict on ourselves in doses that exceed the acceptable norm. We live in social norms, which don't take our individual traits into consideration. We are forced to please other people with our behaviour and achievements in artificial situations. We are drowning in the sea of expectations which come from all directions. And we let other people make us think the same way, so we set ourselves such expectations and suffer if we don't meet them.

So yes, to live = to suffer. But not by design, but by our choice.

Worrying · Accepted Answer

I strongly agree. The condition for survival is to be able to endure and withstand the tortures of life. Lol.

NaultD · Accepted Answer

It's more situational. Maybe exercise but more expressive with pushing sports. That second wind or runners high feeling. Pushing your own limits little by little.

Compare to breaking your ankle with a limp for the rest of your life. That is just agony i guess.

Frederic Nietzsche was a very fragile person and his strongest drink to stomach was milk and he broke down to tears seeing a random house getting wiped and protecting it and was unable to recover until his own death.

My favorite quote of his was "those who fight monster, see to it you yourself don't become monsters.

For those who gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes back."

madhatters4 · Accepted Answer

i agree. this is one of the four noble "truths" in Buddhism. in buddhism it's called Dukkha which states 'All of the things a person goes through in life cause suffering and they cannot do anything about it.'

it is one of the challenges to enlightenment. the key, per the buddha, is to acknowledge suffering is a part of life and then figuring out how live with suffering and find happiness despite it

GoodGuyBreakingBad · Answer

I strongly agree

Unit1 · Answer

Definitely. If it's not beach and cocktails and BBQ party and having fun and looking cool and doing cool stuff, then it's definitely suffering.

thegreenyogi · Answer

I do agree to a certain extent. Life is hard and nothing comes easy. So if you want something you have to work hard for it. But if you also learn to appreciate the good things it makes life a little bit easier and less burdensome.

menina · Answer

I would say it depends. Some people have perfect lives. I know you mentioned people who suffer from mental illnesses, but I'm thinking about people who are healthy.