In Christianity, the reason for evil and suffering in the world comes from Adam and Eve's disobedience. From there, we lost our place in Paradise. I'm curious though what explanation do Eastern religions offer for the existence of evil and suffering in the world.

For Discussion:
1. Why is there evil and suffering in the world according to Buddhism, Hinduism, etc?
2. What is the way to overcome this problem in the world? Is there a Christian equivalent to salvation in Eastern religions?
 
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Suffering in eastern philosophy is said to arise from living unconsciously in past memories or future imagination due to the influence of strong desires in the form of cravings and aversions, known as raag-dvesh.

Living unconsciously thus is also stated as living in psychological time or psychological reality as opposed to the existential reality.

I would like to cite an example here. I used to go to the beach to view the sunsets which I greatly enjoy due to the various colors displayed during that particular window of time. After the sunset was over I used to go home in a state of joy and peace.

Once while sitting at the beach waiting for the sunset, I got engrossed in my mind's thinking and emoting over certain issues, and totally overlooked or ignored the sunset as it happened. I left in a state of misery and unhappiness due to my psychological reality overshadowing or eclipsing the existential reality around me.

This in a nutshell can help to explain the ironical presence of suffering and depression in this world of great beauty and peace as evident in nature.

The nature of the mind is to tend to the negative and to live unconsciously in the past or future.

It takes a certain amount of understanding , focus and awareness to arrest this tendency and ensure the mind stays in the present , and it is for this purpose that spiritual exercises like meditation, self-inquiry, mindfulness practice and other practices are emphasized in hinduism and buddhism.

Sadhguru elaborates on this in this article...


Let us understand the mechanics of suffering. Today morning, did you see that the sun came up wonderfully well? The flowers blossomed, no stars fell down, the galaxies are functioning very well. Everything is in order. The whole cosmos is happening wonderfully well today but just a worm of a thought worming through your head makes you believe it is a bad day today. Suffering is happening essentially because most human beings have lost perspective as to what this life is about. Their psychological process has become far larger than the existential process, or to put it bluntly, you’ve made your petty creation far more important than the Creator’s creation. That is the fundamental source of all suffering.
 
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Sadhguru elaborates on this in this article...
That was an interesting read. I don't accept it completely though. If the topic is "Why are We Depressed?", I could agree more. However, suffering is not always a problem of our mind. I could not disagree more with this statement: Suffering is not showered upon us, it is manufactured. And the manufacturing unit is in your mind. It is time to shut down the manufacturing unit. When my mother endured chemo and radiation for her lung cancer, I can assure you suffering was indeed showered upon her. Her mind did not produce the sickness. Also, how are victims of rape and murder able to shut down the manufacturing unit? Victims of violence are not responsible for the mistreatment they receive. So while I can agree that we do sometimes cause our own suffering, many times suffering comes from outside sources that we have no control over. Thank you for sharing your view.
 
Suffering in eastern philosophy is said to arise from living unconsciously in past memories or future imagination due to the influence of strong desires in the form of cravings and aversions, known as raag-dvesh.

Living unconsciously thus is also stated as living in psychological time or psychological reality as opposed to the existential reality.
Yes, just the thinking I was looking for. I also see the validity of it. The mind plays a big role in how we go through life. But interestingly, while Sadguru, who I think is representative of the Eastern perspective, talks about not paying much mind to the mind. That's a contrast to how psychology is practiced in the US and probably other Western nations where we deal with the mind to fix the mind. Here's from the article you linked to:
What you call as “my mind” is not yours actually. You don’t have a mind of your own. Please look at it carefully. What you call as “my mind” is just society’s garbage bin.

When we talk about a spiritual process, we are talking about shifting from psychological to existential.

If you want to move into existential reality, to put it very simply, you just have to see that what you think is not important, what you feel is not important. What you think has nothing to do with reality. It has no great relevance to life. It is just chattering away with nonsense that you have gathered from somewhere else. If you think it is important, you will never look beyond that. Your attention naturally flows in the direction of whatever you hold as important. If your thought and your emotion is important, naturally your whole attention will be right there. But that is a psychological reality. That has nothing to do with the existential.

I have more questions than answers here, but this is definitely a good start to the topic here.
 
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Sadhguru elaborates on this in this article...
That was an interesting read. I don't accept it completely though. If the topic is "Why are We Depressed?", I could agree more. However, suffering is not always a problem of our mind. I could not disagree more with this statement: Suffering is not showered upon us, it is manufactured. And the manufacturing unit is in your mind. It is time to shut down the manufacturing unit. When my mother endured chemo and radiation for her lung cancer, I can assure you suffering was indeed showered upon her. Her mind did not produce the sickness. Also, how are victims of rape and murder able to shut down the manufacturing unit? Victims of violence are not responsible for the mistreatment they receive. So while I can agree that we do sometimes cause our own suffering, many times suffering comes from outside sources that we have no control over. Thank you for sharing your view.
I agree with your point, and I think even those like Sadhguru would admit that not all suffering is self-caused if pressed on it. However, I do think we underestimate how much suffering the mind causes. Stress has been associated with diseases, for instance.

Of course, I likely won't agree with everything the gurus have to say, but it is good to see what they bring to the table. As we've brought up in another discussion, nearly all religions have a common ancestor and contain some truths.
 
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