That was the first niggling fault-line which over time became a crack. The final nail in the coffin came with my inability to reconcile working to better myself with the Buddhist teachings about not desiring things.
In short, yes not wanting anything will mean you're never disappointed. If you accept that all life is perception and not to be worried about, you'll never be concerned if you have a new car, a good job or if your partner leaves you.
The problem I have with that is that great achievements come out of the total opposite. Wanting to make things better, wanting to improve your lot and the lot of those around you and the disappointment that drives you to do better next time.
Buddhist philosophies didn't invent the electric light, write a concerto or paint the Mona Lisa. Those activities are pointless indulgences of the transiency of life (Samsara). But they are still beautiful, and I believe they are worthwhile.
For that reason I had to abandon it. I'd essentially found cause to disagree with the central teaching of the Buddha and find fault in his assertion that magic didn't exist whilst telling stories centred around it.
I find this in particular very interesting and i guess i agree with here most in particular.
The idea of wanting for nothing i think goes against human nature in a big way. If we are to progress, then we need to want to progress, but from a budhist view wanting to progress would be going against their concept of wanting for nothing.
I think buddhism can do a lot for society, but as you said it can not do everything for society- it is not the be all and end all of everything, and so perhaps not the ultimate truth or path to enlightenment etc.
But i think that concept of wanting for nothing can still be useful in that when you come to really understand it, you can explain a lot of things in life, and if you can understand these things then you can perhaps find a solution or answer to them.
I do not know that much on buddhism, but i have read a lot about it and what it stands for, my favorite buddhist book is a book full of the Dalai Lama's teachings for use in everyday day-to-day life.
But although i agree with a lot of what the Dalai Lama teaches, to really put everything properly into practice, a lot of his teachings would just be unpractical for society and day-to-day life etc.
I do think as a society we are probably too materialistic, and i think buddhism at times can help teach us to value the non-materialistic things in life a lot more as they should be. But it would simply be unpractical and not logical for me to give up all of my material possesions, my money, my house, my car etc- i do definately think that one can be very happy in life even if they are one of the poorest people in the world, but on the other hand, having things can take a lot of stress out of day to day life. I don't want to return back to the ancient ways of being little more in essence than a peasant living in, say, the medieval times- i don't think i would be very happy if i gave up my attachment to all of my material possessions, but i do understand that someone can have an unhealthy attachment to material possessions or place the wrong type of value to them etc.
When it comes to benefetting society, at the end of the day i do think buddhism has a lot to offer.
One thing i noticed from early on is that it places a great deal of emphasis on tolerance and compassion to all other people, even if they don't believe in the same things as you, like they are of another religion- this i found was very refreshing, since although other religions like christianity supposedly teach the same tolerance and compassion, religions like christianity also hypocritically teach us to basically ostracize people like gays and non-christians from society if they refuse to change their ways to more christian agreeable ones etc.
I thought it was very open-minded and good of the Dalai Lama when he said in his book that essentially the one thing all religions have in common is that they are all about creating spiritual inner peace and are on a path to spiritual enlightement, and that there is no one religion that is suitable for all people to reach these goals, some people may be more suited and have more in common with one religion than the next etc. So we should basically never try to enforce our religious beliefs on others or try to eradicate other religions, but instead show tolerance towards other religions and be compassionate towards all other people regardless of what their religion is etc.
A lot of wars have been started because of disagreements over religious beliefs, but i think if people showed a bit more tolerance and compassion towards other people like what the Dalai Lama teaches, then a lot of these wars would never have been started and a lot of people would never have lost their lives etc.
What do you think

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