Ben Knew About Suffering

These words of wisdom come from Ben Franklin. They show that Ben knew about suffering when he wrote about inconveniences.

I think that he also understood that life is available only in the present moment when he said that we “neither see nor feel those of the future.”

Life’s inconveniences can be troublesome when we fail to live happily in the present moment. When our minds are scattered and we try to make decisions, they will often be scattered as well.

This is also the First Noble Truth – the noble truth of suffering.

When the Buddha talked about suffering, he was referring to three types of suffering. The first type of suffering is the obvious one of the pain of illness, old age and death. This includes physical, emotional, and mental pain.

The second type of suffering is the suffering of change or impermanence. We all know that everything changes, but we often insist that they don’t. We have no control of things changing. We crave pleasant experience and are adverse to unpleasant experiences.

The third type of suffering is the suffering of conditioned things. Conditioned things are dependent on or affected by something else. All phenomena are conditioned in that they affected by other phenomena. The Buddha put it in this way: “This is like this because that is like that.”

“All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.“

– Benjamin Franklin

Don’t get too caught up in the various types of suffering. This is because the Second Noble Truth is that the cessation of suffering is possible.

How will you use this information from Ben Franklin abpit the inconveniences of life? Please share.

Autobiography of Ben Franklin

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Dover Thrift Editions) by Benjamin Franklin Blessed with enormous talents and the energy and ambition to go with them, Franklin was a statesman, author, inventor, printer, and scientist. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence and later was involved in negotiating the peace treaty with Britain that ended the Revolutionary War. He… [Read More…]