Article

Would You Choose Pain Over Non-Existence?

Topic: Life PurposePublished July 27, 2009

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I searched this on google- The pain that is existence...and I found an interesting ongoing discussion on a Physics forum addressing this question: Would You Choose Pain Over Non-Existence? Those guys on that Physics forum seemed to be very smart and dug deep into the meat of the question. They questioned and analysed it from many angles. Here is the link to the interesting and for me very thought provoking discussion- link. I thought I'd throw it out here on the Intent community and see what comes of it. Where we go with it. What my friends on here think? For me life is a constant battle or stuggle to live in the light or not. To be in pain or not...the darkness and the light always fighting. I believe we all feel pain. It is what makes us human. However it is our going into the pain that makes us reach joy and enlightenment. It is not easy and sadly some of us loose the battle. Sometimes the extreme result of the loss to this struggle can be the sad act of suicide. So when we go into it we must thread carefully. We also should surround ourselves with support systems, friends, networks, people we can lean on if it gets too rough and tough. But above all we shouldn't take this life or its pains too seriously. Now the physicists in their discussion said things like well then don't have kids because you can then choose not to have beings exist in pain. However the mere fact that they phrased their question as such suggests that they believe we even have a choice to exist. Perhaps echoing that famous bard's writing from Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1: "To be or not to be, that is the question;rnWhether 'tis nobler in the mind to sufferrnThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,rnOr to take arms against a sea of troubles,rnAnd by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep;rnNo more; and by a sleep to say we endrnThe heart-ache and the thousand natural shocksrnThat flesh is heir to — 'tis a consummationrnDevoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;rnTo sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,rnFor in that sleep of death what dreams may come,rnWhen we have shuffled off this mortal coil,rnMust give us pause. There's the respectrnThat makes calamity of so long life,rnFor who would bear the whips and scorns of time,rnTh'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,rnThe pangs of despised love, the law's delay,rnThe insolence of office, and the spurnsrnThat patient merit of th'unworthy takes,rnWhen he himself might his quietus makernWith a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,rnTo grunt and sweat under a weary life,rnBut that the dread of something after death,rnThe undiscovered country from whose bou No traveller returns, puzzles the will,rnAnd makes us rather bear those ills we havernThan fly to others that we know not of?rnThus conscience does make cowards of us all,rnAnd thus the native hue of resolutionrnIs sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,rnAnd enterprises of great pitch[1] and momentrnWith this regard their currents turn awry,rnAnd lose the name of action.[2]" But do we have a choice "To be of not to be" in the first place? I don't think so. Neither do I think we have any control of bringing children into this world or not. Yes there are the bodily functions or nowadays the decisions to use artificial means to have children and it is a conscious decision thing and actions are taken. However if we believe in the existence of a soul no matter what we do on the material plane we cannot make a soul enter, stay or leave a body before its time. So can we really control birth and death, or decide to be or not to be?... to live or die? In the metaphysical sense these things might be seen as choiceless...in the universal dance we are just moving forward...expanding and contracting and we have no choice but to go with the flow as the universe inhales and exhales. So perhaps then the question becomes irrelevant because we can't really choose to be or not to be... to exist or not exist for we simply just are! Many pennies and cups of tea for the thoughts of the Intent community on this...

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