What do you feel about world's suffering?

[truthseekr]

Each day about 1200 people are murdered, 1000 women are raped , 500 people die from hunger and so on.

People are suffering in various ways across the globe right now.

How do you feel about it?

Some innocent person is getting murdered right now at this moment. Someone is dying from hunger. Someone is being tortured and raped.

How do you go on with your life while you know all these things are happening right now at this moment somewhere on earth? 

Don't you feel some sort of guilt that you are living a good life while someone is suffering so badly somewhere else?

[truthseekr]

I don't know why am I so disturbed by these facts. I never really thought about such things till just last month. I just cared about what's going in my life.

 

But now I feel this weird form of guilt for being here while someone is suffering horribly.

 

[commie]

Welcome to humanity.

I don't feel a significant amount of what you might call guilt for numbers which are probably wrong anyway but I do for the specifics I am aware of (regarding only a tiny fraction of the suffering in the world, but that means more to me than events I don't know anything about). And I don't feel that so much simply because of the suffering but mostly because of what I (don't) do about it. And I don't feel like this only about acute suffering but also about harm more generally and wanton destruction of the biosphere in particular.

Mostly, I go on with my life by paying attention to something else most of the time of course but much of my life is also structured around dealing with this because, while I've gone through phases of intellectual denial, drug abuse and so forth as a teen, mostly I've been facing this in one way or another since childhood.

By the looks of it, many of the people here who aren't psychos numb this feeling (or calling or whatever you want to call it) with grandiose delusions and drugs (though extreme meditation or sports, social media, harassing women, self-harm and whatnot work as well as drugs for some people I guess).

I've discussed it (usually indirectly) with different kinds of people over the years and the most basic response is typically: me, God, me. That is, people talk about their hardships and responsibilities (often imaginary or blown out of proportions) as a way to justify selfishness. Some people make direct appeals to God to excuse their selfishness but mostly they talk about their troubles in a religious framework in order to justify selfishness. People who aren't actively religious often do this as well because they've picked up their values and morality from religion.

Edited October 22, 2020 by commie

[mandyjw]

Focus on suffering makes more suffering. Focus on what you want, health, happiness, community, love, etc gets more of it. If there is suffering in your own life, family, or your community or if something that happens elsewhere moves you to do something to help you empathize fully and take appropriate action, if there is appropriate action to take. An old classmate messaged me that her daughter was sick and they didn't have money to heat their home, so I sent her money. I am aware that girls in Africa don't get access to education like I have, so I have sponsored a girl from Kenya for the past decade. But thinking about these things and concepts outside of our experience is not actual and is actually just focus on our own suffering. The actual money I give to these things comes from having followed my inspiration and having started a business that brings in money. We have to get out of that place of suffering in order to act in a way that actually constructively improves these things. Change comes from inspiration not suffering.

Act if you're inspired to do so. This is actualized.org for a reason. 

Edited October 22, 2020 by mandyjw

[Lieseluke]

Getting wrapped up in guilt only perpetuates the suffering. You are neither helping yourself nor all the billions of other people when you feel guilty about your good life.

My boyfriend actually got me to realise a similar point when it comes to having a job and when you see people working insanely long hours, getting paid very little and basically having a miserable life. I used to wonder how I can be okay with wanting a better job and striving for something that will make me happy when we actually need all those people doing the dirty work that nobody wants to do. However, just becoming another employee at McDonald's or becoming a cleaner will not help any of those poor folks. So by finding a life purpose and doing some work that actually provides value and improvement to the world, you could do much more to help someone.

Have you ever asked yourself whether the cause of your guilt may be a feeling that you are not doing anything meaningful with your life or that you take too many things for granted?

Practicing gratitude and appreciating the little things that you would otherwise take for granted will have a more positive impact on your life than this worrying and guilting yourself. 

[Reciprocality]

I do not feel much for the implications due to those numbers.

If i encounter a someone without dignity or serious issues i will sense empathy, but for those millions i know being in dire need i feel zero, and i never did.

[Carl-Richard]

Thinking is poison. Use it wisely.

[Carl-Richard]

3 hours ago, datamonster said:

While there are obvious problems in the world, it isn't as bad as you think. And it has improved massively!

It is infinitely more problematic than you could ever imagine. Statistics doesn't capture it. There are countless individual perspectives that contain experiences that are absolutely horrible. The thing is though, aside from acknowledging your own relative privilege, why go around thinking about it?

Edited October 22, 2020 by Carl-Richard

[truthseekr]

@datamonster Can't see the book that you are recommending.

[truthseekr]

@Lieseluke @mandyjw

Basically, you are saying that even though I know that right now at this moment many people are going through immense suffering, but me feeling gulit or being mentally disturbed just adds to the suffering and doesn't help anyone.

So, I should rather try to to to do something consrtuctive which actually somehow improves the lives of other people and decrease the suffering of the world by a little bit.

But how is it possible to be happy and joyful while I know someone is suffering right now? 

I am confused. I need clarity,

 

 

[ajai]

@truthseekr Welcome to the forum Buddy, ?

[PurpleTree]

this song makes me contemplate the worlds suffering  

i like to be sad and contemplative but just sometimes

[Lyubov]

I feel sad and blue about it and it sometimes leads me to an existential feeling I haven't fully resolved. I take peace in the fact that I know humanity becomes more loving each generation. I feel compassion for victims and the perpetrators for their ignorance. I make sure not to focus on just the suffering as well. With every murder a baby is born that will grow up and help people. I see humanity as a project of love and learning. We can always help society and others in some way to grow and make the world more safer and peaceful for future generations.   

[Carl-Richard]

8 hours ago, datamonster said:

I think it is possible to hold the idea that the world is bad and the idea that the world is better simultaneously

You said "it isn't as bad as you think", and I said it's much worse than you're ever able to think. I never said it isn't getting better.

Edited October 23, 2020 by Carl-Richard

[Dryas]

I don't care. Too worried about my own survival and suffering.

[tuckerwphotography]

In general, it's healthy and natural to feel grief for the suffering of others. On the other hand, grief is a temporary state of experience, and once that energy has moved, it's a great opportunity to transmute it into passion that you put towards conscious actions. This could be working on raising your own consciousness or helping to create systems and opportunities for others to do so. Truthfully, grief itself is a form of love. If you didn't love the thing you were grieving, you wouldn't be grieving. As long as you're loving, you're helping on some level. But of course, there's endless actions you can take in addition to simply "being" loving, like donating to charities, buying a sandwich for the homeless person on your block, getting involved politically, doing personal transformation work, meditation, helping to protect the environment, taking courses or reading about racism/sexism/etc. The list is endless. Pick one thing and start there. You can't save the world, but you can do one thing today to make a difference. And another thing tomorrow. And a third thing the day after. 

[Village]

I feel empathy for people I can see, not for numbers.

[Heart of Space]

I used to struggle with the idea of so much suffering in the world.

I think you gain some sense of peace with it if you take full responsibility for your own life in the sense that you do everything you can to further your own development as a person.  The best way to change the world and reduce suffering is to further your own spiritual development.  The rest you simply leave to God, so to speak.  

[truthseekr]

@Village But if you can't see them..doesn't mean they are not real.

 

There is some real human just like you and me being tormented right now somewhere in the world, even though he is not in front of me or you.

Edited November 24, 2020 by truthseekr