Suffering is quite unlike shit in that once we get rid of shit, the shit you got rid of does not come back, crawling up the toilet. Suffering is not some “thing” you can get rid of, but rather a quirk of our neurophysiology. Get rid of the most immediate cause of suffering, and your brain adjusts its thresholds to seek the next worst thing; this is called upregulation.
Two related real-life examples: if you are walking in an uncomfortable shoe, you are aware of the uncomfortable shoe. Step on a bad thorn that pierces your shoe and foot, and now your attention is wholly on the thorn. Take the thorn out, and once your wound has healed, your attention is back on that shoe. Inversely, imagine getting a cast on your foot and ankle because you broke it. It may be uncomfortable at first, but as you heal it becomes alright. After a month or two, the cast is removed. When you step on the floor, it is intensely painful! You would not be alone; many patients feel this pain after removing a cast, because their foot has become sensitive from not walking. The same applies to people who wear shoes all the time trying to walk barefoot on gravel; it really hurts them, but those who walk barefoot all the time can do it without issue.
Have you considered that maybe all the writing and philosophising about suffering might be for a reason, and that generations worth of our brightest minds have considered this issue and thought “damn, this suffering thing is inescapable, even if its previous causes vanish!” and then asked “but why is this the case?”.
In fact, I think you may have hinted at it in your comment about people living many happy years as boring and empty. What are those but types of suffering? And why? What makes it so? Furthermore, have you not joined the ranks of these very same people, philosophising about suffering?
Maybe if you find the truth in the core of the “suffering is inevitable” approach, you might realise that seeking discomfort, in wise and non-permanently-harmful ways, is actually a way of reducing the suffering you experience from things that once used to harm you. Of course this is within the limits of your body, but the barefoot walking example of earlier is a decent one, and is up there with working out and fasting, amongst many others.
I disagree with your take.
Suffering is quite unlike shit in that once we get rid of shit, the shit you got rid of does not come back, crawling up the toilet. Suffering is not some “thing” you can get rid of, but rather a quirk of our neurophysiology. Get rid of the most immediate cause of suffering, and your brain adjusts its thresholds to seek the next worst thing; this is called upregulation.
Two related real-life examples: if you are walking in an uncomfortable shoe, you are aware of the uncomfortable shoe. Step on a bad thorn that pierces your shoe and foot, and now your attention is wholly on the thorn. Take the thorn out, and once your wound has healed, your attention is back on that shoe. Inversely, imagine getting a cast on your foot and ankle because you broke it. It may be uncomfortable at first, but as you heal it becomes alright. After a month or two, the cast is removed. When you step on the floor, it is intensely painful! You would not be alone; many patients feel this pain after removing a cast, because their foot has become sensitive from not walking. The same applies to people who wear shoes all the time trying to walk barefoot on gravel; it really hurts them, but those who walk barefoot all the time can do it without issue.
Have you considered that maybe all the writing and philosophising about suffering might be for a reason, and that generations worth of our brightest minds have considered this issue and thought “damn, this suffering thing is inescapable, even if its previous causes vanish!” and then asked “but why is this the case?”.
In fact, I think you may have hinted at it in your comment about people living many happy years as boring and empty. What are those but types of suffering? And why? What makes it so? Furthermore, have you not joined the ranks of these very same people, philosophising about suffering?
Respectfully, I think you’ve fallen into the mistake of dismissing the Sazen (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/k9dsbn8LZ6tTesDS3/sazen) of many prior thinkers, perhaps because you did not exercise the skill of “listening to wisdom” (https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5yFj7C6NNc8GPdfNo/subskills-of-listening-to-wisdom).
Maybe if you find the truth in the core of the “suffering is inevitable” approach, you might realise that seeking discomfort, in wise and non-permanently-harmful ways, is actually a way of reducing the suffering you experience from things that once used to harm you. Of course this is within the limits of your body, but the barefoot walking example of earlier is a decent one, and is up there with working out and fasting, amongst many others.