They lack a fully developed sense of self-awareness, right? Yet they can experience joy through many activities I mentioned above. — TheMadFool
However, feeling sorrow to its greatest extent requires a sense of self-awareness. I'm hurting, I'm dying, I'm losing, etc. are all expressions of self-awareness. — TheMadFool
I could agree with either that self-awareness isn't required for neither joy nor sorrow, or that non-human animals have enough self-awareness to be capable of both feelings. Either way, I do think animals certainly are capable of feeling sorrow as well — BlueBanana
I'm hurting, I'm dying, I'm losing, etc. — TheMadFool
it is the ego that is the source of suffering. — TheMadFool
From a Buddhist perspective the ego/self is the ultimate cause of suffering. — TheMadFool
In addition, from a moral perspective, altruism (the highest good) is to put others before you. So, people see value in diminishing the role of the self/ego in ethics. — TheMadFool
Nirvana is literally the realization that there's no self (anatta); this realization is considered a liberation from samsara (cycle of rebirth and suffering). — TheMadFool
From a Buddhist perspective the ego/self is the ultimate cause of suffering. Nirvana is literally the realization that there's no self (anatta); this realization is considered a liberation from samsara (cycle of rebirth and suffering). — TheMadFool
The highest form of good - wisdom and knowledge - can be achieved without self-awareness. And pain and suffering are intricately linked to self-awareness. — TheMadFool
Thus more precisely, ego makes suffering from pain. One could also say that it makes pleasure from joy, but the language is more ambiguous here. So what I am suggesting is that animals and the enlightened have pain and joy from time to time, but not pleasure and suffering which are the stuff of egos. the stuff of identification — unenlightened
it's just worth it. — BlueBanana
I think I've made a mistake. It isn't self-awareness that is the cause of suffering but a misunderstanding of truth or of reality that is the cause of suffering. — TheMadFool
A wise and happy sage knows the truth of this world and adapts his ego to it and is content.
A common man lacks wisdom and his ego suffers from this flaw. — TheMadFool
A wise and happy sage knows the truth of this world and adapts his ego to it and is content.
A common man lacks wisdom and his ego suffers from this flaw. — TheMadFool
It is a perennial philosophical reflection that if one looks deeply enough into oneself, one will discover not only one’s own essence, but also the essence of the universe. For as one is a part of the universe as is everything else, the basic energies of the universe flow through oneself, as they flow through everything else. For that reason it is thought that one can come into contact with the nature of the universe if one comes into substantial contact with one’s ultimate inner being. — SEP entry on Schopenhauer
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