Some people regard Budhism as being pessimistic and the reason for this could be because of its emphasis on suffering. But what ever ones view, all would have to agree on the fact there is a degree of suffering in all lives.
The buddhas intention was not to increase but to decrease our suffering and his teaching were aimed at precisely that. He understood the human mind throughly and so he gave his teaching so that we could train our minds in a way that would be beneficial to our lives. If we follow the buddhas teaching then we must be truly honest will ourselves in all aspects of our life. We learn that we ourselves are not perfect and so we also learn that it is not reasonable to expect perfection from others. We learn that we are not always right and even , sometimes things are our fault. None of this is pessimistic, for it is realistic. All of the teaching are just that, realistic.
Buddhism teaches Metta (Loving Kindness) and this Metta can be given and spread to all living beings. We begin by giving this love to ourselves so that we may be well and happy, because before we honestly spread Loving kindness to others we do need to have and feel it in ourselves. This self love is not egotistical but is a confident state of well being.
Many problems in society are connected with lack of self love and self esteem. We all want to be loved but many find themselves unlovable and some may even take to self harming, drug abuse and or striking out to hurt others, be it physically, mentally or emotionally. So we can see that Metta starting with ourselves is very necessary. We continue with sending Metta to those we love, those we are indifferent to and then to those that we don't like too much. When we send to those we love it is so easy but continuing on is where it can be a little difficult, but as a time passes we see this attitude changing, because we change, we bless those whom we love and learn to love those we don't(at present).
By knowing and following this way, it is only positives that can occur in our daily life. We will come to realize that there is no room at all for pessimism to be present.
The buddhas intention was not to increase but to decrease our suffering and his teaching were aimed at precisely that. He understood the human mind throughly and so he gave his teaching so that we could train our minds in a way that would be beneficial to our lives. If we follow the buddhas teaching then we must be truly honest will ourselves in all aspects of our life. We learn that we ourselves are not perfect and so we also learn that it is not reasonable to expect perfection from others. We learn that we are not always right and even , sometimes things are our fault. None of this is pessimistic, for it is realistic. All of the teaching are just that, realistic.
Buddhism teaches Metta (Loving Kindness) and this Metta can be given and spread to all living beings. We begin by giving this love to ourselves so that we may be well and happy, because before we honestly spread Loving kindness to others we do need to have and feel it in ourselves. This self love is not egotistical but is a confident state of well being.
Many problems in society are connected with lack of self love and self esteem. We all want to be loved but many find themselves unlovable and some may even take to self harming, drug abuse and or striking out to hurt others, be it physically, mentally or emotionally. So we can see that Metta starting with ourselves is very necessary. We continue with sending Metta to those we love, those we are indifferent to and then to those that we don't like too much. When we send to those we love it is so easy but continuing on is where it can be a little difficult, but as a time passes we see this attitude changing, because we change, we bless those whom we love and learn to love those we don't(at present).
By knowing and following this way, it is only positives that can occur in our daily life. We will come to realize that there is no room at all for pessimism to be present.
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