Re: Mathematics is the root cause of human suffering!


<calderhome@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Mathematics is the root cause of human suffering!

Siddhartha Gautama is reported to have said that "Desire is the root
cause of human suffering." That is essentially the same as saying
human life is the cause of human suffering, because you cannot possibly
have human life without human desire. It is also true that you cannot
have any life or any existence without mathematical relationships.

Siddhartha mistakenly believed the old Hindu myths of ghosts, souls,
and reincarnation, even though some Buddhists now claim that he
believed in "no-soul." Either way, there is no personal wheel of
life, no immortal personal karma, and no path to salvation at all. The
very idea of gaining merit and freedom from suffering through
meditation and/or right behavior is destroyed if there is no soul or
"bundle of desires" that survives death. Many Buddhists talk out
of both sides of their mouths on the issues of reincarnation and soul,
but that discussion is not the main issue here.

The issue here is that the very nature of the universe, of time,
energy, and space. The entire universe is formed and bound by
infinitely complex mathematical relationships, geometry, and the laws
of chance. Biological life springs from chemistry which is created by
mathematical relationships of atoms in chemical reactions. At a deeper
level life is created by mathematical relationships of sub-atomic
particles within atoms, and perhaps even deeper by mathematical
relationships of the yet unproven cosmic "strings," whose
vibrational existence is promoted by famous "string theory"
advocates. At every level mathematical relationships, which include
the laws of chance, are involved in the creation of the earth, the
stars, and of all life.

The inherent problem with human life is that so many trillions of
things have to go right for it to exist in a healthy state, and there
are thus trillions of chances that things will go wrong. The odds are
against us that we will be born in a healthy environment, with perfect
DNA, and have all the events surrounding our lives go well enough so
that our lives are totally enjoyable and satisfying.

Take, for example, the life of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29th, 1917-
November 22nd, 1963). JFK was born with wealth, privilege, goods
looks, and a intelligent brain, yet he had to struggle with Addison's
disease, because a tiny bit of his genetic code was incorrectly
constructed. JFK's struggled to succeed despite his health problems
and became a husband, father, Senator, and President of the United
States. JFK had enough biological and social kinetic energy going for
him that his life could be considered a brilliant success, right up
until the moment that Lee Harvey Oswald shot a bullet through his brain
on November 22nd, 1963.

The odds that things will go wrong for human beings far outweighs the
odds that everything will go right, so we as individuals are playing
against a cosmic house of death and destruction that has better odds
than we do. Las Vegas casinos consistently make money on gambling
because the odds are in favor of the house by the very nature of the
game. The laws of chance are highly consistent over time and on a
large scale. A few individuals get lucky for awhile, but over time
even their luck good runs out. Despite his great wealth, even the
legendary singer/actor Frank Sinatra called himself a "loser" in
his final years, because even this great macho icon was subject to old
age and ill health, just like everyone else. The rich and famous are
often less happy than ordinary individuals and many feel the need to
escape with drugs and alcohol. The rich and famous tend to divorce
often and sometimes end up committing suicide despite their material
success. Ironically, ordinary individuals often mentally escape by
imagining themselves as becoming rich and famous.

To avoid the inherent suffering of life, the ancients escaped through
meditation and myths of religion. The ancients invented heroic myths
of immortal souls in order to lessen the fear of death, a fear which
creates a constant burden on the mind. Meditation helps you escape the
inevitable boredom and suffering of life because in meditation you
train your brain to behave as a simple plant, not as an active and
complex mammal. Plants have no past or future, no goals, no desires,
and no attachment to life. Plants just exist in the here and now. The
world of trees, shrubs, grass, and vegetables have no problems because
they are not aware of themselves as individuals. Plants have life
energy but no individual life consciousness and no personal ego to
become bruised or hurt.

In meditation the function of the brain breaks down to the basic level
of energetic living neurons, which form a sea of consciousness without
personal attachments. In meditation the human mind-brain feels like
cosmic life-essence without individuality. It is the individual that
suffers, and plant-consciousness reduces suffering, not by solving
problems, but by diverting our attention away from life 's problems
and the constant struggle to survive. This diversion of attention is
fine right up to the point that a tiger eats you, your family starves
or dies of disease, or your country is invaded by a hostile foreign
power. The vegetative meditative state feels good but it has little
value in ensuring your survival, unless you use your enhanced
plant-consciousness power of presence to become a famous guru selling
religious myths to the masses. Meditation often sparks religion and
religion always becomes a business.

Human beings are biological units and are part of the carbon cycle on
earth, not part of any cycle of souls and reincarnation. Suffering is
inevitable because of the basic mathematical structure of the universe.
There are ways to reduce the suffering of life, but there is no way to
escape suffering entirely as long as you are alive and have a pulse.
Even the "enlightened" continue to suffer on the physical level
until the moment of death, and even the "enlightened" have some
psychological suffering, disappointments, and regrets.

Meditation is a great cosmic phenomena, with many benefit for the
individual and for society as a whole. Meditation can bring calm,
peace, and psychological balance, and meditation can become a beloved
refuge of serenity in the stormy seas of social conflict and politics.
The practice of meditation, however, should always be balanced with
the need for social responsibility in order to ensure the survival of
family, friends, nation, and planet.

see: http://home.att.net/~meditation/

Good post, Christopher. The only criticism I have
is that the worlds aren't governed by mathematics;
they are governed by physical laws on which
biological laws supervene. Mathematics is simply
able to describe many of these laws in a succinct
and accurate way.

The physical laws and the biological laws which
supervene on them have made lives and finally
consciousness possible, but it is not in the nature of
these laws to make lives happy. Our body-minds
evolved to survive and reproduce, not to be free
of care and be happy. A lot of people think that
happiness should be part of the deal--but they are
wrong. Desire and aversion are our inherited
curses. Buddha realized this as most of the other
heroes of religion did not.

I often heard it said that the goal of meditation is
a non-dual consciousness, i.e., no separation of
I the subject from whatever object I perceive. I
don't believe this for a minute. You are you and
I am I. We may behave as if we are in the same
boat (we are!) and cooperate and play nonzero
sum games, but we are still separate entities.
Why not accept that and make the best of it,
and cooperate and treat each other fairly and
compassionately? We can enjoy each other with-
becoming "one", can't we? Indeed, when I have
sex I enjoy the differences from me of my partner.
I also enjoy the differences between my companion
animals and me, differences which don't prevent,
indeed increase, our enjoyment of one another.

I'll visit your website.

George


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