Samsara is terrifying

The same faith for some other species. Human give themselves the right to terminate others at will, for make-believe causes and delusional righteousness. Human mass genocides other human. Human mass genocides other species.

I’ve seen enough. I just wish this life will be my last human “incarnation”. I’m going all-in into the Noble Eightfold Path. Either a non-returner or a heavenly rebirth where I take it up from there. There’s no coming back.

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A mind occupied with terror… will be occupied by terror.

While I applaud and rejoice in your resolution to go all-in into the Noble Eightfold Path with the resolution to finally make an escape from all of Samsara, I offer the above to try and help point a way towards a more modest near term salve for your mental suffering. When I get preoccupied seeing the worst in the world or overwhelmed with terror at the actions of others my teacher’s recommendation is to focus on the helpers and those displaying tremendous love and compassion for others.

All around the world mothers are caring for their children, nurses are helping the sick, neighbors are helping neighbors and there is a tremendous amount of care and compassion that is being spread and radiated out. It would be good to try and remember this along your Noble Eightfold Path so that you might have the resilience and fortitude to see it through rather than be hobbled by terror.

:pray:

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Agreed, only solution is to get out of samsara. Where there’s greed, hatred, and delusion, bad things are bound to happen eventually

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At least for these kinds of mass murdering we can do something about it now.

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Samsara is heartbreaking and terrifying and sometimes it is just too much to bear what’s going on out there. Following the teachings helps us to get out and at the same time we are able to do things to help other beings because we can see and feel their suffering.

What we are doing depends on us. There is no right or wrong. One person goes vegetarian or vegan the next person adopts a pet and the next one works in a shelter.

The most important thing for me is, to never feel superior because of the action/s I AM DOING. This, I think, is the walking the wrong path.

With much metta :cow:

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Personally, I found it helpful to really lean into the perception that samsara – including the human realm – genuinely really sucks.

It’s enough to see the greed, hatred, and delusion in my own mind to know that this is a crazy place, and that suffering is inevitable (if one chooses to stick around).

It’s not depressing IMO, but very liberating, in the sense of “what did I expect?” :slight_smile:

Why hold on to sensual pleasures (like food) when it must put us into conflict with others (humans and animals)? Is it really worth it?

Edit: From DN 13

Furthermore, for the sake of sensual pleasures they don their sword and shield, fasten their bow and arrows, and plunge into a battle massed on both sides, with arrows and spears flying and swords flashing. 12.2There they are struck with arrows and spears, and their heads are chopped off, 12.3resulting in death and deadly pain. 12.4This too is a drawback of sensual pleasures apparent in this very life, a mass of suffering caused by sensual pleasures.

People really do genocide each other over land, resources… kill billions of animals for profit. It’s wack!

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This is part of the practice as well, yes. I don’t think we are in any genuine disagreement here, but part of the practice for “not sticking around” is to make your mind an ocean that is not filled with terror. Seeing the downside to Samsara is necessary, but if you overindulge or go to an extreme there is danger in this as well. Much like the monks in the Teacher’s time who took viewing the body as a corpse and disgusting to such an extreme that they hurt themselves. :pray:

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Also, all around the world, people are being discriminated against because they belong to a maligned minority group.

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Well, maybe :nerd_face: :stuck_out_tongue:

This might very well be true, but nevertheless, in my own experience the advice that I agree sounds commonsensical didn’t really work. So I wanted to offer an alternative.

It’s awesome to rejoice in those who are enjoying a temporary respite from suffering though (such as the devas) or those who are enjoying a permanent respite (the arahats) or on the sure path to it (on the stream entry path or above).

Having too much negative mental vedana is probably problematic, but negative vedana and negative perceptions (like samara sucks) don’t have to be correlated IMO.

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