Listening to @FutureThinkers_ ' fascinating interview with Vinay Gupta. This is the first time that I've considered that Enlightenment may not be an inevitable destination at the top of the ladder of salvation.
As much as I've worked to distance myself from negative emotions 1/
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and thought processes, Enlightenment sounds like an extension of that process until the possibility of 1st-order negative experience is removed from the menu. Many people seek this freedom from suffering, but now that I am forming a clear picture of the destination, I'm not 2/
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sure that it's what I seek. Perhaps this is one of the outworkings of the differences between the psychology of Christianity and Buddhism. The Son of Man is begotten of the Father, but He is also fully human. He is transfigured, tempted without sin, and still chooses to take 3/
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on the sins of the world. "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." There are two kinds of suffering. The first kind is the thing that hurts. The second kind is our mind saying "No, I can't accept this." 4/
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We can plan to minimize the first, but only the sweet summer children never taste suffering in their lives. It will come for me. The second kind of suffering is the one that makes the first unbearable. Amor fati. "Not my will but thine." 5/
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It feels to me like the Enlightened one is distancing himself from both of these types of suffering, that in some sense he feels safe from them. I want to get rid of the second but dive into the first. I want to have
#SkinInTheGame. I want to trust the experience I'm having, 6/1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
and sharpen it, not distance myself from it by fiddling with the perceptual apparatus until it short-circuits. I want my capacity for suffering to be infinite so that my capacity for joy will also be infinite. 7/7
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You should check out Vajrayana Buddhism - I feel like it has more of an emphasis on reducing the second kind of suffering rather than the first, compared to renunciate traditions. Also Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha.
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