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by xmonkee 4429 days ago
Life is suffering regardless of your position in time and space if you haven't attained nibanna. Its not specific to the vedic nomads otherwise there would be no need to walk the eight fold path in the first world. Suffering is the first noble truth.
1 comments
dominotw 4428 days ago
>Life is suffering regardless of your position in time and space Is it though? I've lived several third world countries and a couple of first world countries. I know from first hand experience that life in rich countries is much much less suffering and is good 80% of the time whereas in third world countries is 80% suffering.

What is the point of our developments in science and technology if everyone is still suffering equally.

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xmonkee 4428 days ago
From a Buddhist perspective: In what country do you not have death of loved ones, old age, sickness? In what country do you not have attachments, fear or sadness? Technology can make us more comfortable, but not "solve" life for us. Some people have more comfort in life than others, animals are even worse off than poor people, and gods in heavens are more comfortable than Bill Gates, yet all of them will face death and sickness in this life (including the gods in buddhism). The only escape is Nirvana.

From a secular perspective: There are lots of ways to look at this. We could see everyone as being on a spectrum. Your happiness levels depend on your position on the spectrum relative to your peers. Poor people in the US have cars, yet they are extremely unhappy and suffering. The same amount of wealth in India would make you middle class and much happier. So clearly the happiness is not a function only of money but also of perception. People were in general just as happy or sad 3000 years ago as they are today, what has technology achieved then? If technology was making the world more equal, I would support the proposition that development is a net positive, as everyone would have the chance to grow spiritually rather than spend a human birth just surviving, but that's not the case. Technology divides more than it equalizes. There is no "point" to technology, it will happen. There's no use fighting it, there's no use supporting it over everything else. Technological progress is a fact of life. There is a point to equality, it allows everyone to achieve their potential and maybe reduce actual suffering on the planet.

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