Comment on If suffering is good because it gives life meaning, wouldn't it follow that hurting people is good?

• nocteb@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  You can be hurt but are not suffering and you can suffer without being hurt.

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  • naught101@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Got some examples?

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    • ArseAssassin@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The Second Arrow parable does a pretty good job.

      You are walking in the woods and suddenly you get struck by an arrow (someone fires an arrow at you) and it hits your arm and it really, really hurts - it’s very painful and you feel that physical pain in your arm, and it’s bleeding. And then immediately your mind starts to think - "Oh my god, what’s gonna happen? What if I bleed to death? What if this is infected and I can’t walk back properly? Or I lose energy and I can’t get back to my family? What’s gonna happen to my family? What’s gonna be happening to my husband / my wife / my children? What’s gonna happen to me or what’s going to happen to their future, how will they be doing?”

      The Buddha describes the first arrow as the physical pain and the second arrow is what your mind does - it starts thinking about the worst scenario that can happen. And he says “be warned of the second arrow.”

      The first arrow represents the pain - the actual physical pain, and the second arrow represents what you call suffering. So we distinguish between pain and suffering.

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      • naught101@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Makes sense, thanks!

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      • TheBat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Does this mean people who harm themselves are trying to move the locus of hurt from internal to external?

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    • nocteb@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The main difference is that suffering is internal while being hurt is an external factor that can lead to suffering. People suffer from all kind of things: sickness, being bored etc.

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