Do I wish that I was never born?
In Buddhism, the best existence is non-existence. The three marks of existence are: suffering, impermanence and non-self. All beings have suffering; whether one is born as a god (deva), human, ghost, animal or Hell-Being. Suffering include: birth, ageing, sickness, death, association with the disliked, separation from beloved ones, and not getting what one wants. If one is unborn, he/she will not be subjected to any of the suffering. However, one also finds some pleasures in life. It’s therefore a profit and loss consideration. Does one consider life has more profits than losses, or the other way around?
In Buddhism, being born a human is the best gift, better than being a god or Deva. Deva has very little suffering, but that’s impermanent. And that is a bad thing. Why? Suffering is not necessarily bad; lack of suffering is not necessarily good. A wise person is inspired to find the path to happiness when he is inflicted by suffering. Therefore, suffering is a very good teacher. Lack of suffering makes Deva complacent and unable to feel the urgency to seek the path leading to cessation of suffering.
Do I wish I was never born? I am happy to be born a human and am so blessed and fortunate to hear the words of the Buddha. I would be happy to escape the cycle of rebirth or Samsara; ie never be reborn again and become non-existence in the worldly sense. Nevertheless, I will have no regrets to be reborn into any form if there is an afterlife. This is probably the joy and equanimity from the teaching of the Buddha.
Everyone is suffering. No one likes suffering; just like no one likes bitter medicine. But we are sick, more or less. Right medicine is good for us; wrong medicine will cause more suffering. We don’t want others to inflict more suffering to us unnecessarily. We must also not inflict more suffering to others unnecessarily. A culture of non-violent is good for everyone not only in this lifetime but also in the next life (if any) when we are reborn. If there’s no next life, we have nothing to lose. One who is selfish and always thinking to gain advantages over others only makes himself similar to a beggar. Too many beggars in this world cannot be good. One who always practices loving kindness and compassion, prefers to give instead of taking, not afraid of being taken advantage of by others, make himself holy and better than a wealthy person.
Nothing is permanent. That means we will definitely lose what we have, including good things and also bad things. Losing good things will make us feel unhappy. Knowing that we will lose bad things in a later time should make us happy, unless we are impatient. Therefore, we must not be impatient. We will also lose our bodies, but we will not be unhappy if we don’t see the body as a good thing. Better still, don’t see the body as the self, and don’t assume the real self is inside the body. Instead, consider the body as an Avatar remotely controlled by the real self. We are incapable of losing or gaining anything, because nothing really belongs to us. Don’t feel sad for the breaking up of the Avatar, like how we let go of a broken chair.
By contemplating the three marks of existence, one will have no more suffering. He is as good as unborn. He has no more fear, obligations and guilt (FOG); because he has no greed, hatred and delusion. The perfection of virtue, equanimity and wisdom makes him feel happy under any circumstances.
All suffering are due to desire and attachment. Desire for existence is a sickness; desire for non-existence is also a sickness; So is desire for sensual pleasure; three clinging to abandon. Suffering stops when these desires are abandoned. The way leading to cessation of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path.
RESILIENT KID 