All Individuality as Suffering?

I am having trouble understanding Buddhism views on suffering. It seems to me that they view everything as a form of suffering, even positive emotions. It also says that you have to get to a point where you do not feel negative nor positive emotions.

Can someone explain this to me?
Why would positive emotions be bad?

Positive feelings would lead to attachment to this world and so rebirth and return to suffering.

[CSEe]

Originally Posted by softtidesandties

I am having trouble understanding Buddhism views on suffering. It seems to me that they view everything as a form of suffering, even positive emotions. It also says that you have to get to a point where you do not feel negative nor positive emotions.

Can someone explain this to me?
Why would positive emotions be bad?

In my current understanding , Buddhism is beyond knowledge so if one assume Buddhism is a form of knowledge , there will be endless confusion as human indeed confused over their own knowledge .

In my current understanding , all living or non-living is originally from a condition of nothingness ...this nothingness is what introduced to mankind as " The Buddha" ...so " Buddha is nothingness and is the original condition of all existence regardless living or non-living ........and there is pollutant energy that causes one existence ...for non-living is the material form / body and for the living is their emotions ......so as human , our cause of existence is our emotions and this emotions had defined by human knowledge into desire , will , greed , love etc ....Buddhism ia a natural process of all living or non-living releasing its polluted energy towards emptiness back into nothingness . So as human we are in a natural process to awake , to aware , to realize , to accept and to further aware all our emotions leading to freedom from it ...until there is no will to continue existence back into nothingness ..the original condition . So in my current understanding of Buddhism all living or non-living are same and equal , all our emotions regardless happiness , joy , sorrow , greed , love is the same ...so regardless you are suffering or in joyfull condition is all the same .............Buddhism is your process realizing your emotions into naturally freedom of it ......
I wish to discuss with you further for my better understanding .
Thks CSEe

[declan]

Hi softtidesandties
"Dukkha " or suffering.Its part of the Buddhist system of belief.Its been handed down for thousands of years and been found to be correct.
You really need to study the "teachings" to understand what is meant by "suffering".It is not always meant literally that we are suffering , but through our actions and because of our deluded ideas, we bring unintended consequences to ourselves.
The Buddha thought a remedy to this problem.
As for feeling positive or negative emotions, well thats all just part of the illusion.
Ideally, be in every moment ,feel good without effort, close your mind down and just breathe.

[Samana]

Originally Posted by softtidesandties

I am having trouble understanding Buddhism views on suffering. It seems to me that they view everything as a form of suffering, even positive emotions. It also says that you have to get to a point where you do not feel negative nor positive emotions.

Can someone explain this to me?
Why would positive emotions be bad?

Hi softtidesandties,

I recommend that you read this:

Life Isn't Just Suffering
by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu




"He showed me the brightness of the world."

That's how my teacher, Ajaan Fuang, once characterized his debt to his teacher, Ajaan Lee. His words took me by surprise. I had only recently come to study with him, still fresh from a school where I had learned that serious Buddhists took a negative, pessimistic view of the world. Yet here was a man who had given his life to the practice of the Buddha's teachings, speaking of the world's brightness. Of course, by "brightness" he wasn't referring to the joys of the arts, food, travel, sports, family life, or any of the other sections of the Sunday newspaper. He was talking about a deeper happiness that comes from within.

As I came to know him, I gained a sense of how deeply happy he was. He may have been skeptical about a lot of human pretenses, but I would never describe him as negative or pessimistic. "Realistic" would be closer to the truth. Yet for a long time I couldn't shake the sense of paradox I felt over how the pessimism of the Buddhist texts could find embodiment in such a solidly happy person.

Only when I began to look directly at the early texts did I realize that what I thought was a paradox was actually an irony — the irony of how Buddhism, which gives such a positive view of a human being's potential for finding true happiness, could be branded in the West as negative and pessimistic.

You've probably heard the rumor that "Life is suffering" is Buddhism's first principle, the Buddha's first noble truth. It's a rumor with good credentials, spread by well-respected academics and Dharma teachers alike, but a rumor nonetheless. The truth about the noble truths is far more interesting. The Buddha taught four truths — not one — about life: There is suffering, there is a cause for suffering, there is an end of suffering, and there is a path of practice that puts an end to suffering. These truths, taken as a whole, are far from pessimistic. They're a practical, problem-solving approach — the way a doctor approaches an illness, or a mechanic a faulty engine. You identify a problem and look for its cause. You then put an end to the problem by eliminating the cause.

What's special about the Buddha's approach is that the problem he attacks is the whole of human suffering, and the solution he offers is something human beings can do for themselves. Just as a doctor with a surefire cure for measles isn't afraid of measles, the Buddha isn't afraid of any aspect of human suffering. And, having experienced a happiness totally unconditional, he's not afraid to point out the suffering and stress inherent in places where most of us would rather not see it — in the conditioned pleasures we cling to. He teaches us not to deny that suffering and stress or to run away from it, but to stand still and face up to it, to examine it carefully. That way — by understanding it — we can ferret out its cause and put an end to it. Totally. How confident can you get?

Continued here:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/lifeisnt.html

Best wishes,

Sam

[Samana]

deleted post

Originally Posted by softtidesandties

I am having trouble understanding Buddhism views on suffering. It seems to me that they view everything as a form of suffering, even positive emotions. It also says that you have to get to a point where you do not feel negative nor positive emotions.

Can someone explain this to me?
Why would positive emotions be bad?

In Buddhism, the word 'suffering' or 'dukkha' means to bear with. When there is samsāra arising, dukkha would arise concurrently. Samsāra literally means ‘continuous flow’- referring to a repeating cycle of birth, life, death and re-birth. As such, any circumstances that would involve one to continue with; to persevere with; to soldier on with; to carry on with; to undertake with; to go through with would mean suffering or dukkha. Literally, it is not correct for one to put much attention onto the conditions of pain, anxiety, agony, dissatisfaction, joyfulness or happiness - for these conditions merely reflected as the consequences of dukkha arising.

To ‘bear with’ is to suffer and the antonym of it is to ‘let go.’ So stop submitting oneself to the conditional circumstances and one would be freed, be liberated and be neutralised! Let us cure the cause, not the symptoms!

[passnthru2]

read the 4 Noble Truths.. they are a simple logical posit, start at the beginning. everything, all Dharma [The Buddha's Teachings] after the 4 Noble Truths is simply commentary on the 4 Noble Truths.

Buddhism isn't a religion, it is more of a psychology.. it is a method for training the mind to be awake in the present moment.

[passnthru2]

Originally Posted by passnthru2

read the 4 Noble Truths.. they are a simple logical posit, start at the beginning. everything, all Dharma [The Buddha's Teachings] after the 4 Noble Truths is simply commentary on the 4 Noble Truths.

Buddhism isn't a religion, it is more of a psychology.. it is a method for training the mind to be awake in the present moment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
this is a good source information about Buddhism.. check out the Buddhanet Audio section for teachings on different subjects.. there is also a Beginning Buddhism class here.. etc.. this is a great Theravada site... Theravada is the place to begin. once you get a good grasp of the basics and meditation you will be able to move on to Mahayana Buddhism and understand that better.

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/8foldpath.htm

Originally Posted by takso

In Buddhism, the word 'suffering' or 'dukkha' means to bear with. When there is samsāra arising, dukkha would arise concurrently. Samsāra literally means ‘continuous flow’- referring to a repeating cycle of birth, life, death and re-birth. As such, any circumstances that would involve one to continue with; to persevere with; to soldier on with; to carry on with; to undertake with; to go through with would mean suffering or dukkha. Literally, it is not correct for one to put much attention onto the conditions of pain, anxiety, agony, dissatisfaction, joyfulness or happiness - for these conditions merely reflected as the consequences of dukkha arising.

To ‘bear with’ is to suffer and the antonym of it is to ‘let go.’ So stop submitting oneself to the conditional circumstances and one would be freed, be liberated and be neutralised! Let us cure the cause, not the symptoms!

This is a beautiful answer, thank you for sharing.