The cruelty of nature

[Anoesjka]

I love nature, I really do. But why is it so cruel? Why do creatures have to undergo such pain and suffering?

 

My spouse call me this afternoon, "Look, a hedgehog! Isn't it wonderful?" But normally hedgehogs don't show themselves in broad daylight and upon closer inspection I noticed a big bulb hanging under its' tummy. Probably a tumor.

 

What should I do? Feed it, it's obviously hungry. And then what? Call the local center for hedgehogs, or animals in need? That's all nice and theoretically good, but if it is indeed cancer, they'd probably put it down immediately. Is that in the best interest of the hedgehog? Or does it still want to live, since it obviously eats the cat food I gave it? How can I decide?

 

And I realize, that even in not deciding, I'm making a decision. Oh, I'm sometimes so not up to this cruel world. Everything kills everything else and the rest is ill, and they all are in pain and fear. There's just too much of it and it really bothers me. I'm having Weltsmerzen.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Anoesjka

[soaring crane]

I'm having Weltsmerzen.

 

About 10 years ago, I was helping out at a youth center (Kinderhort, actually) and was playing football with a group of boys, from about 8 to 12 years old. One of them was being very sluggish and grumpy the whole time and finally just sat down in the middle of the field and stayed there. I asked him what (zum Teufel) was wrong with him and he answered, "Ich habe Weltschmerzen".

 

The thing is, that hedgehog didn't have Weltschmerzen. He accepted what life had given him, and was more than ready to walk the path ahead of him, regardless how long or short it is. Nature isn't cruel and uncaring, it's beyond all that.

[Anoesjka]

The thing is, that hedgehog didn't have Weltschmerzen. He accepted what life had given him, and was more than ready to walk the path ahead of him, regardless how long or short it is. Nature isn't cruel and uncaring, it's beyond all that.

 

I know all that rationally, and it's me that's doing all the labeling, but I'm feeling a bit depressed about the world lately. All those nice things in nature can't seem to make up for all the suffering and the world has lost it's sparkle for me. I hope it's temporary.

[Marblehead]

Yeah, I'm sure it is only a temporary thing.

 

I love watching nature programs on TV but when they show the cruel aspects of nature I will turn away, or even change channels to avoid looking at that stuff.

 

Realizing that it is a part of the cycle of creation and destruction doesn't help much.

 

Some things in life we just have to accept even though we prefer not to.

[zerostao]

maybe venture out into nature a bit more.i dont know your particulars> how close you are to nature/how much time you spend there? but its all relative, i spend more time in nature than most and i have no idea what weltsmerzen is but i had some recent melancholy and spending a little time out in the local nature (woods here) did help.

[Chang]

Nature is unkind and that is simply how it is. Some things we can change but this is not one of them.

 

It is best if we learn to accept this fact and simply let it be OK.

[Anoesjka]

Yeah, I'm sure it is only a temporary thing.

 

I love watching nature programs on TV but when they show the cruel aspects of nature I will turn away, or even change channels to avoid looking at that stuff.

 

Realizing that it is a part of the cycle of creation and destruction doesn't help much.

 

Some things in life we just have to accept even though we prefer not to.

 

That's the key aspect, acceptance. I'm going to have to work on that one, I guess. But if even YOU turn away from nature's cruel aspects is there any hope for me?

[zerostao]

watching a tv nature show just isnt the same as going out into nature itself. and Nature is also very kind and giving in the physical as well as in the spiritual. just step away from the tv and computer and step into nature. you will find understanding and equanimity

[Anoesjka]

maybe venture out into nature a bit more.i dont know your particulars> how close you are to nature/how much time you spend there? but its all relative, i spend more time in nature than most and i have no idea what weltsmerzen is but i had some recent melancholy and spending a little time out in the local nature (woods here) did help.

 

Hi zerostao, I live in the boondocks with a huge garden. Gardening seemed to do the trick in the past for me, but recently it has stopped being a remedy.

 

I have everything I ever wanted, yet it doesn't fulfill me. Who could have imagined?

[zerostao]

sounds like a wonderful place there anoesjka. we all go thru these types of funk from time to time and you will cycle thru it.

sometimes may take longer than others, i can relate to your last sentence too. you are not alone.

[C T]

Hope this will ignite a lil' spark in your heart .... i continue to find comfort & inspiration in these words no matter how many times i have listened to the clip.

 

 

Sometimes when we dwell too long on the big picture, it can make us lose touch with the small one. And the small one says...

always try to be kind and gentle to yourself, for it is only then that you can radiate genuine kindness out to others.

 

_/\_

[Anoesjka]

Hope this will ignite a lil' spark in your heart .... i continue to find comfort & inspiration in these words no matter how many times i have listened to the clip.

 

 

Sometimes when we dwell too long on the big picture, it can make us lose touch with the small one. And the small one says...

always try to be kind and gentle to yourself, for it is only then that you can radiate genuine kindness out to others.

 

_/\_

 

Thanks so much CT, this is really uplifting. Sometimes one forgets all these things.

[zerostao]

"all that rationally"

nature may be irrational and thank goodness for that. it'd be really lame if nature went by human rationality.

nature can be saddening, frightening, familiar and exotic. nature is unexpected, exciting, confusing in that we can experience bewilderment. its beautiful and deadly all at once. and in silent moments one may still be able to hear everything happening at once. the thing with nature is> we are not going to be indifferent towards it, there will be the joyous and the sad. depending on the lighting is what we are gonna take from it.

[Marblehead]

But if even YOU turn away from nature's cruel aspects is there any hope for me?

Hehehe. Trying to put me on the spot, are you? Yes, there is hope for all of us. Thing is, we don't have to hold the scenes in our stare nor in our memories. Again, acceptance then let it go.

[Taomeow]

Saw a picture the other day, a bee and a fly. The caption under the bee read, "this life, it's all flowers and nectar and honey, it's beautiful and sweet." Under the fly: "This life is shit, shit, shit, nothing but shit." Both are right, of course.

 

So nature's rule number one is, who you are determines what you get.

 

And then there's a Chinese story about rats. The sage went to the village outhouse and noticed some rats scurrying around, dirty, hungry, skinny, pathetic creatures. Then he visited the village bakery just a couple hundred li away and lo, there he also noticed some rats -- with sleek shiny fur, with big round bellies, fat, lazy, happy. The sage then pronounced something that Western real estate agents picked up two thousand years later: "Location, location, location!"

 

So nature's rule number two is, where you are determines what you get.

 

And thence I derive nature's rule number three... guess what that is.

 

Whoever manages to master all three, flies above the clouds on transparent wings, lazily, like a rat with a buttered bagel in its teeth and a sting of invincibility in its tail. Like a dragon.

[Andrei]

If you ever read Gutdjieff, he was referring to this as Iraniranumange:

 

http://ae.gurdjieff.org.gr/terms/en50/0290.htm

[Nungali]

I love nature, I really do. But why is it so cruel? Why do creatures have to undergo such pain and suffering?

 

My spouse call me this afternoon, "Look, a hedgehog! Isn't it wonderful?" But normally hedgehogs don't show themselves in broad daylight and upon closer inspection I noticed a big bulb hanging under its' tummy. Probably a tumor.

 

What should I do? Feed it, it's obviously hungry. And then what? Call the local center for hedgehogs, or animals in need? That's all nice and theoretically good, but if it is indeed cancer, they'd probably put it down immediately. Is that in the best interest of the hedgehog? Or does it still want to live, since it obviously eats the cat food I gave it? How can I decide?

 

And I realize, that even in not deciding, I'm making a decision. Oh, I'm sometimes so not up to this cruel world. Everything kills everything else and the rest is ill, and they all are in pain and fear. There's just too much of it and it really bothers me. I'm having Weltsmerzen.

 

Damn! You dont have blushwood nuts there I suppose ... its an indigenous cure for cancer here.

 

Oh yeah ... we got a cancer cure ... starts working within minutes ... the tumour liquefies and dissolves in a matter of days to weeks and the nut juice assists in remarkably quick healing of the site. There are all types of remedies here that the indigenous know about , I have used a few ... great stuff.

 

" In most cases, a single dose of the treatment using the chemical caused the cancer cells in the tumor to degrade in just four hours. The tumor of one golden retriever named Oscar in the clinical trials on pets disappeared in just six weeks."

 

One day medical science may catch up ... they have just realised about the blushwood nut (of course they only test it on animals .. not for humans , until they can patent it in a pill form

 

Blushwood nut .... yougogoogle sis !

 

[ I love saying that ... once I was discussing something, out in the bush ... sitting in the dirt around a fire , virtually naked ... covered in days of dust and wallaby fat and soot (from cooking over the fire and sleeping next to it ) and this Aboriginal guy is saying something I dont believe and I am disputing with him and he says "No! 'strue ... yougogoogle bro."

 

"What? ... sorry I dont know that word yougogoogle what does it mean ?"

 

Him : "No ... bro ... your words; yougogoogle it its on google ... you will find out."

 

I guess if I asked him why nature is so cruel ... he would probably ask me "why are you so soft and sentimental ... even though you eat meat? "

Edited October 12, 2014 by Nungali

[Nungali]

I know all that rationally, and it's me that's doing all the labeling, but I'm feeling a bit depressed about the world lately. All those nice things in nature can't seem to make up for all the suffering and the world has lost it's sparkle for me. I hope it's temporary.

 

 

Maybe you need to play with this possum a bit ?

 

 

[Marblehead]

That is such a cutie!

[Nungali]

Thats an adult !

[Flolfolil]

...

Edited March 5, 2015 by Flolfolil

[zerostao]

me thinks the appalachian possum is a very different creature than the aussie possum.

ours are cute too ( but not the ways yours are) i reckon but with a meaner cruel looking cuteness.

(not referring to either george jones or the possum queen that i used to run with)

Edited October 12, 2014 by zerostao

[Taomeow]

If you ever read Gutdjieff, he was referring to this as Iraniranumange: http://ae.gurdjieff.org.gr/terms/en50/0290.htm

 

Of the words he made up, my favorite is Kundabuffer -- for kundalini.

[Taomeow]

Damn! You dont have blushwood nuts there I suppose ... its an indigenous cure for cancer here.

 

Oh yeah ... we got a cancer cure ... starts working within minutes ... the tumour liquefies and dissolves in a matter of days to weeks and the nut juice assists in remarkably quick healing of the site. There are all types of remedies here that the indigenous know about , I have used a few ... great stuff.

 

" In most cases, a single dose of the treatment using the chemical caused the cancer cells in the tumor to degrade in just four hours. The tumor of one golden retriever named Oscar in the clinical trials on pets disappeared in just six weeks."

 

One day medical science may catch up ... they have just realised about the blushwood nut (of course they only test it on animals .. not for humans , until they can patent it in a pill form

 

Blushwood nut .... yougogoogle sis !

 

[ I love saying that ... once I was discussing something, out in the bush ... sitting in the dirt around a fire , virtually naked ... covered in days of dust and wallaby fat and soot (from cooking over the fire and sleeping next to it ) and this Aboriginal guy is saying something I dont believe and I am disputing with him and he says "No! 'strue ... yougogoogle bro."

 

"What? ... sorry I dont know that word yougogoogle what does it mean ?"

 

Him : "No ... bro ... your words; yougogoogle it its on google ... you will find out."

 

I guess if I asked him why nature is so cruel ... he would probably ask me "why are you so soft and sentimental ... even though you eat meat? "

 

So the conclusion is, it's not nature that's cruel, it's civilization-nature mix that's cruel. Every area of the world had remedies for cancer of course -- not that there was a lot of it before our "progress" went on a rampage -- e.g. TCM materia medica, which has tens of thousands of remedies for pretty much anything that can go wrong with a human being and believes in leaving no bruise untreated, however minor, has very little to offer against cancer, because it was so rare at the time the system was being created that most physicians never encountered it (I know the party line/brainwashing drill used against the argument that cancer used to be exceedingly rare -- "people didn't live long enough to get it." Such god-awful bullshit. Brain and blood cancers in infants and children 2-4 years old have increased twelvefold in the last decade alone, in case anyone's been researching...) Native Americans had bloodroot preparations -- these were still in use in the US in the 30's, I've seen a manual for oncologists from that period titled "Chemosurgery," devoted largely to this substance and its use to dissolve tumors.) Another substance used by Native Americans for tumors was tobacco, which, unless mixed with toxic chemicals as it is in our civilized commercial cigarettes, triggers apoptosis (natural death) in cancer cells and does not allow them to survive and spread in the body.

[Vmarco]

I love nature, I really do. But why is it so cruel? Why do creatures have to undergo such pain and suffering?

 

In Buddhism and Taoism the key to understanding is through SEEING THINGS AS THEY ARE. The crux is, that "seeing" things as they are cannot occur through the 6 senses.

 

Sakyamuni's enlightenment first revealed this, called the 4 Noble Truths;

 

Suffering is a consequence of the desire to see things other than they are. Buddha did not say to have no desire,...he implied to not desire things to be other than are. All thinking see things other than they are. Thinking arises from the 6 senses (one's perceived sentience).

 

When one can "see" as suggested in the Heart Sutra,...there is a "seeing" of the way things are.