The implicit understanding of Buddhism is that the Buddha 'sees things as they truly are', meaning, generally, that he understands the psychological and affective causes of suffering, which arise from craving and identification with sense pleasures. — Wayfarer
But my understanding is, very briefly put, that the purpose of life is to awaken, and to serve awakening. To what? one might ask. I think you have to be able to develop a sense of gratitude, and also a sense of wonder at what most people think is ordinary (although that is by no means all there is to it.) — Wayfarer
So the sense, common to a lot of existentialism, of having been 'thrown into existence', isn't warranted (although I hasten to add, I could easily understand why many people do feel that way, like the poor unfortunate refugee diaspora.) — Wayfarer
...because of that we actually have a reason for existence, and it's up to us to work out what that is; I think a good deal of unhappiness is caused by the unwillingness to face up to that fact (for which, see Eric Fromm, Fear of Freedom). — Wayfarer
And also we have stewardship of 'spaceship earth', which, in my view, is the only vessel we're ever going to have (so we have to overcome our promethean sci-fi fantasies of interstellar travel). — Wayfarer
He understood the cause of stress, which although is indeed suffering, does not cover all bases. Buddhism can help with anxiety, stress, disappointment, fear, etc. But it hardly helps with any other kind of discomfort. — DarthBarracuda
LOL! :-*Perhaps Plato had no slaves in his Republic because the majority of its workers in it were no better off than slaves in their subjugation to its ruling class. — Cavacava
No - they thought slavery was an evil, but a necessary one (hence the some are slaves by nature from Aristotle), and therefore supported it, because eliminating it would have caused more problems than maintaining it, and gradually eliminating it. Similar to the situation with servants in India today. So yes - there are evil things in our midsts that we have to do something about - but we have to be careful that by solving them we don't bring about even greater evils.Re: slavery. Id like to do some more research, but the sense I got is that slavery has always been abhorrent.... there was always mistreatment (as if "only" ownership wasnt bad enough), and there have always between people who didn't give slavery a seCond thought. I got the sense it was just assumed that some people deserved to be slaves. — anonymous66
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