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Description
I can get through the bad. So far anyway.
I do it by having as much fun as possible.

Had a discussion with someone who changed my mind on the subject of pain and suffering. I used to believe it was an irreducible part of being conscious, at least as a Human.
That we really only know which concepts to use to describe any particular conscious state by contrast. But that's not coherent. Epistemology doesn't get off the ground if such knowledge is only available to us through contrast. No? Perhaps I miss something.

It seems to me that one experiences (percepts) in all these states. For example: particularly attentive lovers are in bliss, euphoria, and yet remain lucid enough, can exchange information, respond to each other, I'd argue, in a heightened or at least more careful state of perception than normal. And there's no pain or suffering there at all. I need not know the despair I've known, or the pain I've known from injury, to have the full experience of bliss in a consummate, empathetic lover. In fact I don't experience those bad memories at all *in those moments.* The pleasure is a discreet, unique conscious state.

Think of it ontologically. Someone being abused is not merely having the lack of a good time. Pain and suffering are physically unavoidable for us, at least right now. But there's nothing necessary about them. Given sufficient advancement in medical technology, bio-tech and so on, it may be possible to interact healthily with the world without pain at all.

But for now, I do find at times the only thing gets me through a lot of it is a meditation. Not being attached to whatever it is that's bothering me. Half the time my stress is tied only to my inconclusive feelings about a situation, rather than any facts. So I feel the sadness or the suffering, but I do not identify *as* that sadness and suffering experience. It need not linger, or amplify.

I hope this helps someone out there who may be struggling. There are ways we are all alone, but there are other ways we have a commonality to our experience. Through those connections I think we can be stronger together.

What do you think about it?

Love ya all!
Have a BRILLIANT weekend!
-Candy-

Description
I can get through the bad. So far anyway.
I do it by having as much fun as possible.

Had a discussion with someone who changed my mind on the subject of pain and suffering. I used to believe it was an irreducible part of being conscious, at least as a Human.
That we really only know which concepts to use to describe any particular conscious state by contrast. But that's not coherent. Epistemology doesn't get off the ground if such knowledge is only available to us through contrast. No? Perhaps I miss something.

It seems to me that one experiences (percepts) in all these states. For example: particularly attentive lovers are in bliss, euphoria, and yet remain lucid enough, can exchange information, respond to each other, I'd argue, in a heightened or at least more careful state of perception than normal. And there's no pain or suffering there at all. I need not know the despair I've known, or the pain I've known from injury, to have the full experience of bliss in a consummate, empathetic lover. In fact I don't experience those bad memories at all *in those moments.* The pleasure is a discreet, unique conscious state.

Think of it ontologically. Someone being abused is not merely having the lack of a good time. Pain and suffering are physically unavoidable for us, at least right now. But there's nothing necessary about them. Given sufficient advancement in medical technology, bio-tech and so on, it may be possible to interact healthily with the world without pain at all.

But for now, I do find at times the only thing gets me through a lot of it is a meditation. Not being attached to whatever it is that's bothering me. Half the time my stress is tied only to my inconclusive feelings about a situation, rather than any facts. So I feel the sadness or the suffering, but I do not identify *as* that sadness and suffering experience. It need not linger, or amplify.

I hope this helps someone out there who may be struggling. There are ways we are all alone, but there are other ways we have a commonality to our experience. Through those connections I think we can be stronger together.

What do you think about it?

Love ya all!
Have a BRILLIANT weekend!
-Candy-