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Old 31-03-2017, 06:33 AM
Starman Starman is offline
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Join Date: May 2016
Location: U.S. Southwest
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The vast majority of people in this world are simultaneously victims of horror and perpetrators of horror at the same time.
When we buy products that are made in places like China we may be contributing to slave labor or some other horror,
and China is not the only country.

I went to Afghanistan last year for 3-weeks to do some work with Doctors Without Borders and the resilience of refugees
who we were trying to serve astonished me. Most of them from war-torn Syria, and most of them did not complain about
their situation. Most had lost someone, or even their whole family, due to war.

I saw the same thing as a U.S. Army combat medic during the Vietnam War. Children playing and laughing in bombed out
cities or villages with such a joy-filled spirit in the face of such adversity. People in the western world will cry if they stub
their toe, or consider it a major travesty if they don't get to watch their favorite T.V. show. Personally I think people in
western societies are over diagnosed for what they think ails them. People in so-called "third-world" countries do not have
the luxury of diagnostic labels and pharmaceuticals like they do in the west. There are many who would gladly exchange
their suffering for the suffering some say they are having here in the U.S.

I have simplified and downsized my lifestyle and that invites less for me to have to take care of. A Buddhist saying "own
no possessions that none may own you" is applicable; as what we own owns us; we give what we own, material goods
and even other relationships, our time, attention, and often our money or other resources to maintain or repair, etc.;
in this way we are owned by what we say is mine. If we embrace simplicity in living it often alleviates suffering;
also volunteer work with those less fortunate can remove perceptions of our own suffering.

People in developed nations generally live longer than people in underdeveloped nations, but people in developed nations,
like the U.S., Japan, Switzerland, etc., take their own life and commit suicide much more than people in underdeveloped nations.
This was cited in the U.S. Surgeon Generals Report on Suicide. If this report is correct, why do you think people in rich nations
commit suicide more than people in poor nations? Maybe it is because our expectations are greater and subsequently our
disappointments are greater. It is all just an illusion, a plastic fantastic illusive kaleidoscope; an ongoing unfolding drama on
the stage of human life; detachment helps.
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