Why Life Does Not Suck
by Charly Mann
The more I examine the dialogue going on around me, the more I am convinced that many people really believe life sucks. It is not uncommon to hear from a number of teenagers and young adults that, “life is a shit sandwich, and every day is another bite.” Even more typical are statements like the following that fill discussions on popular Internet sites:
Life seems to suck nowadays. I don’t feel like doing anything. All I wanna do is sleep on the couch and eat fast food and hope not to get fat. I feel like a loser. I have little social life and my exams are bad, having almost flunked english, the subject which I topped in primary school.
The following from another individual, however, might be the quintessential expression of this philosophy:
Most people think life sucks, and then you die. Not me. I beg to differ. I think life sucks, then you get cancer, then your dog dies, your husband leaves you, the cancer goes into remission, you get a new dog, you get remarried, you owe ten million dollars in medical bills, but you work hard for thirty five years and you pay it back, and then one day you have a massive stroke, your whole right side is paralyzed, you have to limp along the streets and speak out of the left side of your mouth and drool but you go into rehabilitation and regain the power to walk and the power to talk and then one day you step off a curb at Sixty-seventh Street, and BANG you get hit by a city bus and then you die. Maybe.
Our major religions don’t necessarily contradict this idea either. The first noble truth of Buddhism is that the nature of life is to experience suffering. The best that Buddhism says we can hope for is temporary happiness and pleasure that will eventually be replaced by pain, fear, and mental distress. Unfortunately, in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, even death is not an escape from our unhappiness. Buddhists and Hindus say we are simply reborn into different bodies, and that we will suffer the same problems we had in this lifetime. Christians, on the other hand, believe you have probably a 9 in 10 chance of going to hell after you die, where you will suffer even more than you did in this lifetime, and do so for eternity. Here is what a Christian theologian said recently:
Surely, nine out of ten people in this wicked world are bound for a Godless, eternal hell. I have no doubts whatsoever that 90% of the people in this world are going to Hell. Why? For one simple reason friend, they do not have the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior—Their sins have not been forgiven. We estimated that 232,876 humans die every day on average. 232,876 minus 10% equals 209,588 people that perish into hell fire and destruction every single day that passes. So roughly, 200,000 HUMANS PLUNGE INTO HELL FIRE EACH AND EVERY DAY! We also see that 23,287 people (10%) make it to Heaven each day on average.
So, does life really suck? No, far from it, life is truly a great and exciting journey with some bumps on the road. The primary reason for this is one word – love. Real love may be difficult to find, but when you share it with even one wonderful person, it is the greatest gift life can bestow. The love I am talking about is real love, and is often called unconditional love. It can only be experienced between people who share so much in common that even sitting silently with them is as enjoyable as a great conversation.
Life is also great if you can surround yourself with wonderful people. These are people who are generous, mature, humble, and possess a strong degree of personal integrity. Most importantly, they have a passion and commitment for making their life and the lives of others better.
Life is also great if you have a purpose that keeps you focused and committed to always doing your best.
Finally, what makes life great is how far we as humans have come in just the last ten thousand years. With our ingenuity and creativity, we have progressed from being nomadic people who were hungry most of the time and rarely lived beyond the age of twenty to living in comfortable homes, having more food than we need, and usually being healthy until at least the age of eighty.
For those who believe life sucks, I suggest you try making something of your life. Do something good and helpful for others. Try looking at things positively instead of negatively. There is joy in the simple things in life. Enjoy a smile you put on someone else’s face, savor the beauty of nature, enjoy human creativity at its finest by listening to great music or visiting an art museum. Appreciate the amazing beauty of a flower in bloom.
We are not perfect people and this is not a perfect world. It is inevitable that we will endure sorrows, sickness, and death, yet during most of life we can experience comfort and happiness. The primary reason we are unhappy with our lives is because of our attachment to physical things, including money, possessions, our own body, and other people. Most enlightened religions and philosophies explain that as long as we are attached to the false belief that we are our bodies, we will never be able to escape unhappiness. As soon as we cease our attachment to things and our physical form, all our worries and troubles will go away. This is a long and gradual path for each of us, but it can be attained.
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
-- Albert Einstein
The great breakthrough in one's life comes when you realize that you can learn anything you need to learn to accomplish any goal you set for yourself. This means there are no limits on what you can be.
-- William Robert Mann
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
-- Galileo Galilei
We're not meant to fit in. We're meant to stand out.
-- Sarah Ban Breathnach
If you love life, life will love you back.
-- Arthur Rubinstein
Life isn't about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself.
-- George Bernard Shaw
Making a living is not the same as making a life.
-- Fred Castrovinci
Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think of you.
-- John Wooden
Ideas that matter; information that inspires
I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod, my shadow does that much better.
-- Plutarch
If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth.
-- Mitsugi Saotome
Judge yourself by your actions and not your intentions.
-- Charly Mann
Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.
-- Jim Rohn
Call it Nature, Fate, or Fortune; all are names of God.
-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Remember to work hard. Look to the future with enthusiasm and hope. Accept responsibility, not only asking for your own rights, but also accepting responsibility for yourself, for other people, for nature and for future generations.
-- Madison Mann
Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction. The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it�s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment.
-- Anthony Robbins
Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.
-- Albert Einstein
Ethical existence is the highest manifestation of spirituality.
-- Albert Schweitzer
My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated with the fumes, call it, of that divine nectar, to bear my head through atmospheres and over heights unknown to my feet, is perennial and constant.
-- Henry David Thoreau
One-half of life is luck; the other half is discipline - and that's the important half, for without discipline you wouldn't know what to do with luck.
-- Carl Zuckmeyer
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
-- The Dalai Lama
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
-- Confucius
There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.
-- Sophia Lyon Fahs
Adults are obsolete children.
-- Dr. Seuss
You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension, and discipline are taken out of your life.
-- James Bilkey
Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing.
-- Anais Nin
True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.
-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Love doesn't make the world go 'round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
-- Franklin P. Jones
If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take chances.
-- Julia Sorel
Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.
-- Washington Irving
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
-- Carl Sandberg
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
-- Confucius
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.
-- Mark Twain
We can't measure out goodness by what we don't do, by what we deny ourselves, or by what we resist, and who we exclude; but we should measure our goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.
-- from the movie Chocolat
Random information for a more fulfilling life
Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow. It has no real substance of its own. It is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
-- Shakti Gawain
The difference between adults and children is that adults don't ask questions.
-- Kathryn Mann
No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick
You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.
-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Why is there something rather than nothing? We do not know. We will never know. Why? To what purpose? We do not know whether there is a purpose. But if it is true that nothing is born of nothing, the very existence of something - the world, the universe - would seem to imply that there has always been something: that being is eternal, uncreated, perhaps creator, and this is what some people call God.
-- Andre Comte-Sponville
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
-- Henry David Thoreau
The shortest way to do many things is to do one thing at a time.
-- Richard Cech
Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
-- Epicurus
A life, if well lived, is long enough.
-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.
-- Albert Einstein
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.
-- Carl Sandberg
The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.
-- Solomon Ibn Gabriol
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.
-- Helen Keller
If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.
-- Alan K. Simpson
Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.
-- Leon J. Suenesl
It's not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of humankind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.
-- Leo Buscaglia
When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no "I'll start tomorrow." Tomorrow is disease.
-- V.L. Allineare
Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings.
-- Edmund Burke
Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make.
-- Donald Trump
The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they're still alive.
-- Olando Battista
Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Overcome your fears and you can reach your potential.
-- Charly Mann
Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.
-- Immanual Kant
Six essential qualities that are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.
-- William Menninger
Only Ideas have long and lasting consequences, and ideas come mainly from books not television, movies, or video games.
-- Kathryn Mann
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.
-- Honore de Balzac
Life is a marathon, not a sprint.
-- Charly Mann
You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
-- Vernon Howard
It's not how much money you make that's important - it's how much money you keep and how long you keep it.
-- Robert Kiyosaki
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
-- Albert Einstein
Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
-- Walter Lippman
The only way to change your life is to change your mind.
-- Charly Mann
No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway to the human spirit.
-- Helen Keller
To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.
-- Henry David Thoreau
If you are going through hell, keep going.
-- Winston Churchill
I have six great friends that taught me all I knew; their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.
-- Rudyard Kipling
Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies or cannot be born.
-- Doris Lessing "The Golden Notebook"
If you cannot accept fear of failure, you will never be successful.
-- Charly Mann
The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.
-- Buddha
Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.
-- Edwin Way Teale
Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
-- Abraham Lincoln
A certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
Nothing is as weak as a relationship that has not been tested under fire.
-- Mark Twain
Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.
-- Will Rogers
Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.
-- Plato
There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.
-- Logan Pearsall Smith
Money can contribute significantly to happiness if spent wisely.
-- Charly Mann
Universal truths, insights and information for a better life
Money often costs too much.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Passion is the genesis of genius.
-- Anthony Robbins
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
-- Proverbs 17:28
A community that cares about you
Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who treat you spitefully. When a man hits you on the cheek, offer him the other cheek too; when a man takes your coat, let him have your shirt as well. Give to everyone who asks you; when a man takes what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others as you would like them to treat you. If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Again, if you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do as much. And if you lend only where you expect to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to each other to be repaid in full. But you must love your enemies and do good; and lend without expecting any return; and you will have a rich reward: you will be sons of the Most High, because he himself is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.
-- Jesus -Luke 6:27-36
We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
-- Samuel Smiles
Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.
-- Socrates
If a problem cannot be solved, then you need to find the best way to manage it.
-- Charly Mann
The greatest wealth is health.
-- Virgil
Modesty forbids what the law does not.
-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.
-- Sophocles
You may think that you are the product of events that are largely beyond your control, but you do control the moment. The present is the time you take control of what your future will be.
-- Charly Mann
Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.
-- Andre Gide
An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.
-- Sidney J. Harris
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
-- John Quincy Adams
Self-pity is our worst enemy.
-- Helen Keller
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely.
-- Henry David Thoreau
Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.
-- Mark Twain
An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.
-- Pliny the Younger
Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.
-- Albert Einstein
An intellectual is a person who is always seeking knowledge and has the ability to change his mind when he learns new information.
-- Charly Mann
Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss.
-- Doug Horton
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
-- Bertrand Russell
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