The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q8: Why is life so hard?

1 All existence is dukkha. The word dukkha has been variously translated as ‘suffering’, ‘anguish’, ‘pain’, or ‘unsatisfactoriness’. The Buddha’s insight was that our lives are a struggle, and we do not find ultimate happiness or satisfaction in anything we experience. This is the problem of existence.

2. The cause of dukkha is craving. The natural human tendency is to blame our difficulties on things outside ourselves. But the Buddha says that their actual root is to be found in the mind itself. In particular our tendency to grasp at things (or alternatively to push them away) places us fundamentally at odds with the way life really is.

3. The cessation of dukkha comes with the cessation of craving. As we are the ultimate cause of our difficulties, we are also the solution. We cannot change the things that happen to us, but we can change our responses.

4. There is a path that leads from dukkha. Although the Buddha throws responsibility back on to the individual he also taught methods through which we can change ourselves, for example the Noble Eightfold Path.

Right Understanding or Perfect Vision

Right Resolve or Perfect Emotion

Right Speech or Perfect Speech

Right Action or Perfect Action

Right Livelihood or Perfect Livelihood

Right Effort or Perfect Effort

Right Mindfulness or Perfect Awareness

Right Meditation or Perfect Samadhi

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With the excess food available from the slow transition to Agriculture, cities began to form approximately 12,000 years ago. Nonetheless, as recently as 100 years ago most humans still did not live in urban settings. We are still learning how to adjust both mentally and culturally to putting so many primates in such a small area.

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A reflection on the way in which Philosophy and its uses is so often misrepresented as an attempt to be RIGHT. However, this mistakes the power of philosophy and how it can help us understand our lives and our world.

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The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q7: Where is the universe?

He who sees all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings, he

never turns away from It (the Self).

He who perceives all beings as the Self' for him how can there be

delusion or grief, when he sees this oneness (everywhere) ?

He (the Self) is all-encircling, resplendent, bodiless, spotless,

without sinews, pure, untouched by sin, all-seeing, all-knowing,

transcendent, self-existent; He has disposed all things duly for

eternal years. (Isa-Upanishad 6-8)

This Self is never born, nor does It die. It did not spring from

anything, nor did anything spring from It. This Ancient One is

unborn, eternal, everlasting. It is not slain even though the

body is slain.

If the slayer thinks that he slays, or if the slain thinks that

he is slain, both of these know not. For It neither slays nor is

It slain.

The Self is subtler than the subtle, greater than the great; It

dwells in the heart of each living being. He who is free from

desire and free from grief, with mind and senses tranquil,

beholds the glory of the Atman.

The wise who know the Self, bodiless, seated within perishable

bodies, great and all- pervading, grieve not.

This Self cannot be attained by study of the Scriptures, nor by

intellectual perception, nor by frequent hearing (of It); He whom

the Self chooses, by him alone is It attained. To him the Self

reveals Its true nature. (Katha-Upanishads II, 18-23)

When Brahma's day is manifest, this multitude of living entities comes into being, and at the arrival of Brahma's night they are all annihilated.

Again and again the day comes, and this host of beings is active; and again the night falls, O Partha, and they are helplessly dissolved.

Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is.

That supreme abode is called unmanifested and infallible, and it is the supreme destination. When one goes there, he never comes back. That is My supreme abode.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is greater than all, is attainable by unalloyed devotion. Although He is present in His abode, He is all-pervading, and everything is situated within Him. (Bhagavad-Gita 8- 18-22)

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After Art and Tools, Agriculture is clearly one of the most significant breakthroughs in the evolution of human culture. The changes both socially and intellectually necessary to enable a transition to sedentary cereal growing are likely still incomplete. 

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A brief argument for a few habits of mind and time use that are necessary for developing a life of the mind. Not overly prescriptive, but time for quiet reflection, spending time with powerful people that inform and inspire, and creating an outlet for one’s own discoveries are central to experiencing our own power.

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The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q6: What can we learn from nature?

Hundred Schools of Thought (600-200 B.C.)

Legalism: Humans are inherently corrupt and social order can only be maintained through strict hierarchy that imposes order through force.

Mohism: Human society is best served through equality, frugality, and ethical education focused on helping people understand their own best interests. An early example of utilitarian and materialist thinking.

Logicians: Focused on correct thinking, argumentation, naming and use of language as the method best suited to understanding the world and discovering right action. Placed heavy emphasis on reason.

Confucianism: Emphasis on the founding of social order in hierarchy, family, conformity to social roles, the native goodness of human beings and the central role of education. 

The sense of compassion is the beginning of benevolence; the sense of shame the beginning of righteousness; the sense of modesty the beginning of decorum; the sense of right and wrong the beginning of wisdom. Man possesses these four beginnings just as he possesses four limbs. Anyone possessing these four and saying that he can not do what is required of him is abasing himself. Mencius 

Treat with reverence due to age the elders in your own family, so that those in the families of others shall be similarly treated; treat with the kindness due to youth the young in your own family, so that those in the families of others shall be similarly treated—do this and the kingdom may be made to go round in your palm. It is said in the 'Book of Poetry,'

'His example acted on his wife,

Extended to his brethren,

And was felt by all the clans and States;'

Rén (仁, benevolence, humaneness);  Yì (義/义, righteousness or justice);

Lǐ (禮/礼, proper rite);  Zhì (智, knowledge); Xìn (信, integrity).

 Zhōng (忠, loyalty); Xiào (孝, filial piety);

Jié (節/节, contingency); Yì (義/义, righteousness).

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Likely more important than tool use and necessary for the development of more sophisticated tools, the development and creation of art marks the fundamental development of the modern mind. Here we see the imagination put to work in ways that fundamentally altered both the world and how we understood and understand the world today. At the very dawn of the Upper Paleolithic the arts become central to human society.

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It may feel like the end of the world, but it is mostly just the end of our conception of how the world works. When our fundamental values shift then it often undermines our sense of order and prevents the coherent presentation of political arguments. However, and hopefully, it also represents the opening for new ideas and systems to develop

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The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q5: Why was the past so great?

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