Does the average person really suffer?

[MM1988]

Anybody else feel like this sometimes? 

Is the average person really that unhappy? Most of the normal people I know seem pretty content with their lifes. They easily get into relationsships, dont have problems attracting the opposite sex, they find friends easily, they go happily to their soulless wage slavery job, they have materialistic goals and are happy when they finally can buy their new car and stuff like that. They dont even care about personal development and meditation, because it would add nothing to their life. They dont see the value in it.

Lets be honest - most of the people here are coming from a place of suffering. Even Leo got into self-help/PUA because he didnt date until he was 26 or something. Why would you give a shit about how your psychology works or the nature of reality if your life is great and you just want to live a humble life and maybe start a family? Of course its all chimpery and they dont know it but what do you really gain by knowing this?

Do you sometimes ask yourself why they have it so easy and you have to go through all this suffering that lead you to spirituality?

Do you sometimes crave the blue pill and just want live your life in the matrix with all the other human batteries?

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by MM1988

[FrgttnDeer]

There is more suffering than you think. 

[B_Naz]

Well I think they do suffer because they're stuck in a loop. It's just short-term and bursts of happiness or materialism. So they will suffer after that burst is gone, so it doesn't matter if they do the work or not, you're going to suffer regardless. But I don't think self-actualisation is about being happy or to stop suffering. I think it's more about allowing everything in life to flow easily and to explore more about you and create a connection to everything. To create a more potential "you".

The work we do here is also to accept that suffering is there and we must be with it, because it's part of us. We have no control of suffering, and that goes for being happy to. You can't control being happy either, or content, fulfilled, whatever. We have no control over what actually happens  

What we have control over, is awareness. That is something that people are missing.

 

 

Edited September 16, 2018 by B_Naz

[FrgttnDeer]

@B_Naz Who has control over awareness?

 

[B_Naz]

6 minutes ago, FrgttnDeer said:

@B_Naz Who has control over awareness?

 

That's for you to explore. some say it's a overall consciousness that is attached to "everyone", some say it's the objects themselves, like the universe is made up of awareness, so we are only simply aware of our brain. Some say it's God? But who truly knows?

I've made the mistake of asking people on the forum about deep awareness. They can provide good insights but there is no better insight than yourself

Edited September 16, 2018 by B_Naz

[Wyatt]

@MM1988 Why would you allow other's "happiness" and well-being to bring you suffering? They're living their life based on the information and knowledge they have, which is often very culturally based. It sounds like you think you have a better idea of what happiness and fulfillment are than most people. If you do, go and do it. Prove to yourself and them that personal development is the true path to lasting happiness. Why be envious of the blind?

[FrgttnDeer]

@B_Naz What some say is not it. Let it go.

[Rinne]

@Leo Gura

[Hafiz]

I don’t think any human can escape the inherent suffering that comes with getting old, getting sick, and having your friends and family do the same.

[Solace]

They will only know themselves as a thought and emotions. Thoughts change, emotions change; they suffer, they are happy. There is a difference between happiness and bliss too. They only reach a shallow level of happiness.

But life can still be fulfilling to a certain degree, especially if you are doing things you are passionate about. But you can’t make even a small comparison when you haven’t experienced your true nature. Strive for that, and see for yourself. And hang out with these happy people you talk of too, see their lives behind closed doors.

Everyone in high school thought I was happy, and had everything I ever wanted. Intelligent, a great leader, with almost the whole school loving me. Yet I was deeply suffering on the inside, and not even my family knew about it until a few years later. That’s how good we are at wearing masks ? 

It’s better to live naked.

[eleveneleven]

Yes, lots of people I see around me suffer from being ignorant of their true nature (including myself at certain points; I am not immune). Some of these people suffer deeply. Probably most people live their lives with at least some undercurrent of negativity, torturing themselves with every little thing that that they fail to acquire or accomplish.

Not everyone is like this, of course. Some people can cover up their suffering fairly well, or find ways to avoid facing it directly, such as distracting themselves with superficial goals. When someone gets a new car or a promotion, though, does that really make them happy? In my experience, they're "happy" for like two seconds, then go right back to complaining about everything that's wrong. Then they move onto the next shiny distraction.

I think this might be why extremely rich and famous people often have it worse than the average person, because they've run out of shiny things to distract themselves with: they can have anything they want, so they see what few people do, which is that nothing will make you happy. Once you've had a chance to have everything you've wanted, then you have an opportunity to suddenly see the emptiness underneath those superficial desires. Most people are "happy" because they haven't reached that point.

Just having to live with an ego sucks,  though, and most people have one of those. It's low-key torturing the person in the background and sucking up their conscious energy.

[Leo Gura]

Does a bear shit in the woods?

[lmfao]

@MM1988 The average person maybe doesn't suffer as much as the average person here (honestly though this difference might be quite small), but all people have their deep problems when you probe enough. When it comes to people in my school year for example, many people who looked very happy to me on the surface appeared to be in more suffering the more I learnt and observed about them. Have you watched Leo's body awareness video? Walk around in a busy public area and look at how tensed up peoples faces and expressions are. Everyone (yourself included) walks around in a constant state of worry, tension and anxiety. Everyone walks around and carries with themselves a so obviously phony persona and self righteousness. These are all indicative of not being satisfied in the present moment and being unhappy. It's all very clear to see imo

I was attracted to Leo and this forum because I was addicted (and still am) addicted to technology and have depression. I became addicted to escape the reality that I feel disconnected to the people around me because I feel the average person to be dumb and foolish but it is perhaps the case that I am more foolish but in different ways. So I don't crave the blue pill because to crave the blue pill would be an insult to my sense of self and ego, and also because the blue pill is not truthful and is boring in many ways. I know that my temperament is such that the blue pill would make me overtly miserable. 

Edited September 17, 2018 by lmfao

[Forestluv]

@MM1988 That’s all a distraction. It comes down to wether you want to know the truth or not. And the truth doesn’t care about wether you are happy or suffering.

Only you can solve your maze. Afterall, you created it. Wanting to solve it is half the journey,

[Mu_]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Does a bear shit in the woods?

How much does it shit in the woods?  I think its a really good question, one as a 20 year spiritual practitioner have found myself blindly thinking suffering goes on more then it maybe does.  I can see how this has formed a perhaps false idea of reality, and served as a reason to feel as though I have a solution to all this suffering (not to say the spiritual life and lessons can uplift or benefit humanity).  Its also weighed on my heart in a belief that reality is a lot worse then maybe it actually.  I mean if we are to take into account any use of happiness surveys that ask how much a person feels content for what ever reasons that feel they are content, or summarize how they feel during a question of if they are happy, who is to say thats not happy?  From what I've read it seems like people stat being relatively happy/content 50-70%.  Interesting though that this is across 100 or so countries (a really interesting side fact is all countries when asked what do they think is the average level of happiness of the general population, they answer 30-50% lower then reported).    Its really easy to think everyone deep down is really just a mess and suffering, and perhaps it is this way, but the percentage of people that have psychological issues (anxiety, depression of all levels, bi-polar, suicide statistics, etc) It's maybe 20% of the population.  Sure maybe people are "self" medicating via drugs, alcohol, and food, and what ever craving we can think of, but perhaps some of this is a projection onto a generalized whole from a spiritual slant.  I mean I believe a lot of the people who get into spirituality and the ones that awakened to something greater, had a lot going on, perhaps more then the average joe, their experience of humanity may not be a actual reflection of the human condition.  Im no expert, but if I had to guess the general okayness/not suffering/kinda content of the general population is 40-50%, 20-30% pretty happy (even if its not for reasons of self knowing, bliss, god recognition) and then a gradual gradation going down into the into unhappy/suffering levels.  Still lots to improve, its just not what I think the people who are really suffering and seeking spirituality generally think.

Again I'm talking about general feelings of ones life, not if there isn't impactful emotional moments or tragedies,  I think these are more common and most people face stuff that is regarded as hardship, but I'm not sure if that makes "most" people not like their life

Edited September 17, 2018 by Mu_

[Leo Gura]

Bears shit a lot more than you'd think. They're just good at hiding it

[Nahm]

42 minutes ago, Serotoninluv said:

@MM1988 That’s all a distraction. It comes down to wether you want to know the truth or not. And the truth doesn’t care about wether you are happy or suffering.

Only you can solve your maze. Afterall, you created it. Wanting to solve it is half the journey,

Yes! ❤️??

 

[Tistepiste]

@Solace what about now? Are you free of suffering?

[Solace]

@Tistepiste We always have been, we just imagined we were a thought, and not the awareness that IS. 

For me personally, my single focus in every second is upon the absolute beauty of my Hearts Love that I tell you guys about. And in that experience there is no suffering, there is no room. Yet my focus is not perfect, and certain thoughts pull me back into ego about 10-20 times daily; I feel the suffering, and then immediately return to my Heart, stopping the thought mid sentence usually! 

So I'm not free. But I'm enjoying this process of healing, and know that it's only a matter of time now for my imaginary self to dissolve into who I truly am.

Namaste.

[Shin]

9 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Does a bear shit in the woods?

You're starting to write the same kind of post as me.

I'm concerned.

 

Edited September 17, 2018 by Shin