If non-existence is better than existence, why do we cling with tooth and nail to existence?
In reality human is not designed to be happy. Since what we have is never good enough. We are never satisfied with what we have already achieved, but once we got anything, we crave for something else. We always need what we do not possess, because what we already have makes us happy no any longer, we tend to take it self-evidently granted.
This motivation drives the world forward, but it is also what pushes it to destruction at the same time.
Buddha summed this up by saying that the causes of our suffering are our desires, but I think the cause is our existence itself. We only have desires to escape the suffering of existence without knowing. The reason of desires is not to be happy, as the most believe blindly, but to get less misery.
If non-existence is better than existence, why do we cling with tooth and nail to existence?
On what do I base my statement that non-existence is better than existence whatsoever? On a simple empirical evidence. An infinite amount of time has passed without me existing, and I see no harm that would have affected me during that period. In the little time I spent in existence, I experienced both joy and sorrow, but no joy that would last long enough to remain for the period after my existence. In fact, most of the joy just makes you happy for the moment, then you need a new source of joy to be balanced.
Biological existence, on the other hand, is horrible, indeed a horror paved with suffering and pain. We suffer physically (health complaints, accidents), we suffer mentally (boredom, stagnation) and we suffer emotionally (remorse, grief, empathy).
But not only people suffer, but they alone are aware of their suffering. Everything that lives suffers. Plants suffer, animals suffer without knowing. This is blissful ignorance. But the more intelligent a form is, the more ways it has to escape from suffering, however, the more it must do to escape. Consciousness is nothing, but being aware of suffering.
The culmination of this is awareness, that requires the most effort to escape suffering. Human is said to be the only one who seeks happiness, but human is not actually seeking happiness but seeking relief from misery of existence.
In fact, every human action is directly or indirectly determined by an instinctive, unconscious or conscious escape from the suffering inherent in existence. And if something fills one with happiness and satisfaction, it is nothing but temporary relief. This is what naive people call happiness, but it isn’t, it is only a relief, or antidepressant, which we know it will only last for a while.
The solution
Smart and dumb want the same thing, to get rid of suffering, only the methods are different. Dumbs distract their attention with chasing hedonistic pleasures, but this is a cheap dopamine with effect of passing with the same speed like coming. Not to mention the harmful consequences, that inflict both body and consciences. Procrastinating suffering is a multiplied suffering. That’s why, they need more and more of it. Hedonism is the worldview of averageness.
A smart person, on the other hand, sets a life goal for which they work with heart and soul every day single-minded. This makes them so busy, that makes suffering of existence absolutely insignificant. It takes hard work and success doesn’t come instantly, but it rewards you everyday in small portions, and when it comes, sticks with you for a life.
But why?
Why we cling to existence, when we know, we gain nothing with it, only a coward escape from suffering, or heroic fight back to suffering?
I think it’s because we don’t see the alternative of being, just like we can’t imagine what it’s like to see 360 degrees. Nonexistence is not an option for us.
We know that there is life behind the back of our head, just as we also know that life goes on for the living even after our death, but we still cannot imagine it. We don’t know what it’s like to see everything at once.
Maybe Buddha was wrong. Our desires are not the cause of our suffering, but our mere existence. In fact, we gain nothing with existence, what would exceed the suffering, or passing away. Desires are only a vitally important antidote to suffering, but only if they are meaningful. But unreasonable desires do more harm than good, cuz they are poisons, narcotics, what which only multiplies suffering in the long run.
Likewise, the solution cannot be what the Buddha suggests, namely to cut back on our desires to eradicate suffering. The solution is adding meaning to desires, and we gain meaning for suffering, which eradicates suffering. That means we should have only meaningful desires, like desire for helping others.
But why do we struggle, if we know, that we can win battle only, but eventually we’re gonna lose war anyways? Because the alternative of struggling is even worse, suffering with no meaning.
Thanks for reading!