Before I explain what I meant in my next response, I'd like to give you information on Buddhism. Buddhist doctrine holds that all life has suffering and that suffering is caused by desire. This desire is what Buddhist try to eliminate and therefore reach a state of Nirvana, or inner-peace and comprehension through a 8-fold path, which are steps to Nirvana, like a guide. Until they do that though, they are forced to repeat life until through reincarnation until they accomplish the feat of ending desire. Once they reach Nirvana and die, they will go to a heaven of their own.I was never taught what this heaven would be like, but what would be heaven if you didn't want anything?
Buddhism has been around for a long time and many people today follow the faith and I would like to politely say here that I am not try to make a mockery of your faith or your ideology, I am merely unable to believe your faith and these are my thoughts on the matter of what your faith means. I am not a trained converter or a minister or anything other than a church goer and a student, but hear my pleas so that you will be warned.
After she told me that their faith holds that you need to be responsible for suffering and reject it. I told her that, Christianity holds that suffering is caused by sin and if you don't commit sin, you won't suffer, not only that, but you'll be free, happy and content. Buddhism believes that desire causes suffering which is silly, because desire is what drives you. You can do bad, but you can also do good with it, but you'll not do nothing with it. Desire may cause some sin, but that is because you desire the wrong things. Desire can bring you closer to everything. If you were to have no desire, I would pity you, because even in the numb state of being that is pleasurable through how nice it is to be completely free of any want and not care what anyone wants, there is no purpose and you're an isolated, sad soul bent on becoming retracted from the world. You wish for nothing, so you can't wish for a heaven, because you're heaven can't fill your wants and desire because you have none, your heaven would be a disaster because it would be worthless to you as you do nothing there.
If you have no desire, you can't desire peace, you can't desire happiness, you can't feel alive but really just an illusion of what a person is, your soul is but an infant, because it has no want, it has no drive, no motivation, no focus, it just has nothingness. I feel sorry for those that buy this (again no offense). But when you can't desire happiness, joy and purpose, what meaning do you have? Are we all just here to come to the realization that it doesn't matter? Some will argue yes, but I will say that everything you do matters and if you leave the world with just one stone turned over, you've done something that is noticeable. The greatest lives are from those who have flipped numerous boulders and paved paths with the rubble of the mountains that they have crushed.
Buddhists are just afraid of wanting something, even if it is good. Where would we be without MLKJ or Helen Keller? They tried and made a deference, when you don't do anything to make the world better, you have wasted your life, just as much as those who desire the wrong things and make the world worse. Get up and do something with yourself, make something that will outlive you, do something that will make others happy for you and don't wallow in the conviction that you shouldn't do anything because it will cause suffering. Don't get caught up in worrying that you might cause pain, likely if you do it right, it will cause happiness. When you try to promote a form of nothingness, you are like a plague on the people you preach to. You tell them to do nothing and they do nothing, they beg for their food that they don't desire, but need, they are a reliant people that can't help anyone.
Don't be arrogant, you need training. You need to develop morals, not necessarily through Christianity, but it is a good start. Remember that human life is precious and fragile, that love is valuable and loyal and that you can do a lot with words. Your ethics determine you, and in the end, you need a conviction that oversees your life so that you wont end up worthless. Don't spend your whole time here on earth training, because even if it helps, it is only training and you don't train for anything just for the sake of training. You train so that you can be prepared and do something with the training that you receive.
I'm not sure if she will talk to me again, but I do hope that we can still be friends. I hope that she can overlook her childish thoughts on what is good and come to the realization that in the world, desire does great things for everybody. Desire to live, desire to love, desire to do something, anything that can help those who walk with you, behind you and in front of you.
-The Observer
