Definition of Suffering
Suffering is pain objectified (i.e., meta-cognitive awareness of pain).
Put simply, suffering is the result of becoming aware of, and consciously fixating on one’s pain.
Source of Suffering
To this extent, we can define meta-cognitive awareness of pain as the source of suffering. Meta-cognitive awareness of pain, in turn is the result of the ego.
That is to say, meta-cognitive awareness if a function of the “egoic mind,” the part of our internal awareness that we associate with our everyday selves. Inasmuch as the ego is identified with the function of meta-cognitive awareness, it is necessarily identified with the category of “Mind,” which I have defined elsewhere in my metaphysical system. Put simply, the waking conscious self is the source of suffering, because it always is keenly aware of the pain of existence. Contrast this to when we go to sleep, where even the pain of certain painful dreams is dulled by comparison to the pain of waking life. This is our first piece of evidence that the stronger the ego, the stronger the suffering.
In short, the ego is the source of suffering.
This still leaves a question though, what is pain, and what causes pain in the first place?
Definition of Pain
Pain is an experiential state provoked by the privation of a desire. Hence, pain can be defined as the function of the frustration of a given desire.
The intensity of pain is proportional to the intensity of the frustration of a given desire, which in turn corresponds to the intensity of the given desire which was frustrated.
Origin of Pain
To this extent, we can define desire/attachment as the source of pain.
Types of desire/attachment
“Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.” –Schopenhauer
There are two main types of desire, and two corresponding types of frustration: 1. pain-frustration and 2. boredom-frustration.
These two manifestations, each correspond to one type of desire that we have. We have a first-order desire to fulfil unfulfilled desires and then we have a second-order desire to have unfulfilled desires. When the first-order desire is satisfied, the second-order desire is frustrated, when the second-order desire is satisfied, the first-order desire is frustrated. Hence pain is the same either way, it is frustration. The only difference is a question of which of out of the two desires is being frustrated. Depending on which one it is, the manifestation of frustration is different. If the first-order desire is frustrated, the manifestation of the frustration is pain; if the second-order desire is frustrated, the manifestation of the frustration is boredom.
This still leaves a question, why is there desire in the first place?
Origin of Desire/Attachment
Desire/attachment is itself the result of something else: the ego.
If we define the ego as the biological mind-body composite that evolution has equipped with strong instincts toward self-preservation and self-propagation, the ego is by definition the source of many (if not all) of our desires.
The desire for food, water, shelter, comfort, sex, social approval, wealth, fame, etc., are all ultimately derived from evolution, and are thus enshrined in the self-preserving, self-perpetuating ego.
Origin of All Suffering and Pain
In reality, the origin of all suffering and pain is the same: the ego.
The ego is the process of recursive self-awareness that I have elsewhere defined as “Mind,” within the context of my metaphysical system.
The ego, in other words, is the localized dissociative process of mind-at-large (as philosopher Bernardo Kastrup would probably put it). That is, the ego is the accumulation of your personality, your beliefs, your habits, your thoughts, and so on, all of which define and distinguish your particular persona from the persona of your fellow humans. It is, put simply, the illusory costume that “Pure Mind” wears.
Because the ego is identified with the ontological category of “Mind,” it is a function of recursive meta-cognition, and is therefore, correspondingly predisposed to consciously fixate on any experience that occurs within the scope of its awareness. Hence, if pain occurs within the scope of its awareness, the ego will consciously fixate and meta-cognitively re-represent the pain until it magnifies into a state of suffering. Furthermore, the ego is also the source of all desires, including the mutually contradictory set of first-order desires and second-order desires which make life a constant swinging between pain and boredom.
Thus, whether as the source of meta-cognition or as the source of desire, the ego is the source of both suffering and pain, respectively.
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