William32

I am sure every single person who agrees with you would claim that suffering is not bad, yet I am also sure all of those same people would also just so happen to prefer living lives of comfort filled with peace and joy and happiness. Let’s not pretend that you are totally fine with stabbing yourself in the eye just as much as you are getting a foot massage. Even if a philosophical argument could be made that life is merely an illusion, that does not change the fact that physical and emotional sensations still feel absolutely real to the sentient beings experiencing them. What reasonable and honest counterargument can you possibly make to this? Are you going to suggest that everyone should simply be like the Buddha and achieve enlightenment in order to accept torture and learn how to become immune to it? Even if such enlightenment were somehow possible, you would already know you have gone on record stating that only an extremely tiny fraction of people could ever achieve true enlightenment. So, how is it ethically responsible to teach people such absurd logic? How is it ethically responsible to teach your growing audience that, “there is no such thing as a victim. The only time anyone ever suffers is when it’s their own fault. Oh, and by the way, should you want to successfully overcome the worst of the worst possible feelings you may experience in your lifetime then you probably never will because historically most people never achieve true enlightenment. Sorry about that. Only some of us ever win in this preposterous game of life, but you can still maybe win a little bit every so often with my totally-not-flawed-whatsoever logic and advice! Anyway, feel free to make more babies if it makes you happy. I mean, who cares if something horrible is bound to happen to them just like how something horrible has happened to anyone who has ever existed? It's their fault for not being enlightened! Those poor, spiritually immature kids. If only they knew better and didn't have sole responsibility for all of my actions. They were the ones that told me to bring their lives into existence, damn it! I never imposed anything! Well, that's all for today. Please like and subscribe. Share this video. Sign up for my program. kthxbye.”

Why is it more of a priority to you that you should focus on personal development and spiritual enlightenment rather than stop or prevent suffering in the world? Even if you think one’s ego is fictional, do you seriously think the fact that people experiencing excruciating pain everyday is not top priority to fix? Does the reality of torture not strike you as an emergency that should never have to happen again? Do you not think sentient life is ultimately a bad thing simply because of the horrific sensations it is capable of experiencing? Why should pain and suffering ultimately be acceptable in society even though everyone knows they would never want to experience those feelings if they had the choice? Do you not think our psychology is simply deluding us and making rationalizations on how suffering is ultimately okay as long as pleasant feelings somehow make up for it? Do you not think this self-deception is why procreation is socially acceptable even with the knowledge that the world is a dangerous place to live in? After all, people continue to reproduce despite the fact that half of the world’s population lives on less than 3 dollars a day, and despite many, many other potentially harmful factors. The only possible way that society at large stays motivated enough to march on while ignoring many of life’s dangers and problems is by rationalizing that the pleasures they sometimes feel simply outweighs the pains and discomforts they often feel. If anything, advertising for people to master their psychologies enables people to think they can win at life when realistically they will mostly experience loss. And although some individuals are clearly losing less than others, a person generally only wins at the expense of someone else’s well-being, which shouldn’t be celebrated as a good thing. Therefore, I don’t see how promoting the mastery of psychology without addressing the life problem is responsible at all. You are a very insightful, hard working individual. But I think you need to reconsider your priorities in what people should be taught to consider first and foremost. To summarize again, the process of achieving personal gain is usually not worth the cost of the negatives that come along with it. Promoting people to be successful in the traditional sense of the word is overall promoting people to be insane. I appreciate the work you have done, but it is always disappointing when otherwise intelligent people such as yourself do not advocate ethics above all else.