Why do Buddhists think the point of life is to avoid pain?

Question

I feel like that is just avoiding life. They say you should not have any attachments because when you are separated from them it will cause you pain but isn't pain how you learn in life? Can you have attachements to people or would that also cause pain when the relationship fails?

Answer 1

If you enjoy pain that much, avoid the Buddhist religion.

Answer 2

No, Buddhism tells you to not cause pain on the others but it is a great deed to be in pain to protect others.
In Buddhism, people learns how to take pain lightly and continue to moves on without being too terrified in pain. However it is best to avoid unnecessary pain like doing drugs, doing tattoos, or pain for pleasure...
Even Buddha is in pain when he sees people suffers.

Answer 3

I think it's more like pain management ie avoiding unnecessary pain and controlling the unavoidable pain. I did try it and it helped with the smaller stuff but I wasn't enlightened enough to deal with the big stuff. It's a good system. I think the danger is we could become too detached and thus unfeeling to other people's pain. Like everything in life it's in the balancing.

Answer 4

ur body brings u pain, not only physical pain, but also spiritual pain because ur body desires things. Once you avoid all earthly desires or desires of the body, you will no longer fell pain and you will be happy, forever. So the answer to ur question is: because they search for the happiness of the soul and not the body, once the soul is content and liberated from the bodily desires, you will live a peace, forever. No attachment to people, or food, or emotions; knowledge, or total wisdom=happiness or self-realization.

Answer 5

There is necessary pain and unnecessary pain.

The pain from your ego is unnecessary. It's that pain which is bought on by the self. Feelings like: envy, pride, jealously, hate, come from the ego boosting itself, trying to make you believe that you have to be "better". It's all unnecessary suffering because it exists only in egotistical thought reference.
If you have realized that your ego is worthless, than you don't have to defend it, and can concentrate on just being part of things. Of course, we still recede sometimes, I know I do.

Without ego, we can see things as they are. If something is truly painful, than that's OK. That is necessary pain. Another words, there is pain in reality, and its normal to have compassion for it. That is a real and true part of Buddhist understanding, in my little opinion.

Answer 6

That's a misperception. Buddha taught that "life is suffering." He also said "there are more tears on Earth than watter in the oceans."

The point is not that you can avoid all pain. It's about acceptance of what life brings you. At some point, things will fail to go our way at times. You can accept that or bang your head against the wall. Either way, adversity happens.

Answer 7

Don't imagine you understand Buddhist thought after scratching the surface of this premise. There is no avoidance of pain. There is only understanding pain.

Also, Buddhism is NOT an atheistic belief.

Answer 8

Oh that's the NEAT thing... it's NOT about avoiding pain... it's about learning to not have aversions to it to the point it over-affects your life. It's about understanding that pain arises due to causes and conditions and meeting it with patience.

Of course you can have things, be attached to people, it's about SUBDUING your attachments and aversions to the point that such things don't cause you to constantly react in ways that cause others and yourself harm and suffering.

_()_

Answer 9

I wish I could live my life avoiding pain. Without pain, life would be so much better.

Answer 10

There are lots of ways to learn that avoid pain. Obsevervation, simultaion. Avoiding war is a big plus