A World of Pain
Many people are of the opinion that life is beautiful. Most of them will even take the time to explain to you why they think life is beautiful when you tell them that you have a different opinion about it. They’ll start naming many different things that should be seen as proof that life is beautiful, while conveniently pretending that they don’t see all the cruelty that is taking place around them.
As you can no doubt imagine by now, I don’t think life is beautiful at all. In fact, I even wrote before that there is no happiness in life. I do believe that life can be, or could be, beautiful. But it’s not. There might be some nice moments in everyone’s life, but if you look at the overall picture, it just sucks. Badly. Just look at the way it always ends. Is there anything beautiful about that?
Isn’t it interesting that the first thing that babies do when they get born is that they start crying? If life was so beautiful, wouldn’t you expect babies to start laughing and smiling as soon as they enter the world? Shouldn’t they be happy about it? Why cry instead? Where does that come from? Most babies won’t smile until after they are at least a few weeks old. Why is that? They can’t smile for a few weeks, but are perfectly capable of crying from the moment they are born, and even do so quite frequently!
The reason why this is so, I believe, is because life is full of pain and sadness. The moment a baby gets born, he starts to cry most likely because he feels the hostility around him immediately and can perhaps even feel the sadness and pain that is to come. Maybe he even regrets being born and shows that by starting to cry as soon as he’s born.
The fact that babies are perfectly capable of crying from the moment they are born, and that most of them won’t show their first smile for a few weeks, also shows the nature of life. You get born being perfectly capable to feel pain and sorrow and to react to it, but it isn’t until weeks later when you start to learn how to smile. It’s almost as if the baby needs a few months to get used to the situation, and tries to make the best out of it in the end. It’s like after a few weeks of crying about the tragedy of being born in this world of pain, he starts to get an attitude of “hey, since I can’t do anything about this, I might as well get used to it and try to make the best out of it.”
And I can completely understand.
Afterall, it is what most people would do in any bad situation. Try to make the best out of it. So even though life sucks, why not smile when the moment is there to smile once in a while?
That, however, doesn’t change the nature of life. It doesn’t change the fact that everything in this world seems to be based on the principle of pain and suffering. And it never will.
This entry was posted
on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 12:46 pm by Karel Donk
and is filed under 
January 31st, 2008 at 9:27 am
Karel, lijkt wel waar maar niet zo pessimistisch zijn man
January 31st, 2008 at 11:16 am
Misschien was ik juist optimistisch?
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:57 am
Karel, if you speak truth (such as you did in this article) you will get labeled as negative. I believe that is because the truth is negative. I would say to your comment “Just look at the way it always ends. Is there anything beautiful about that?” – I hope (because we do not know what is after material life) that it will be beautiful.
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
On Amazon.com there is a about the book “Birth without violence”:“1979 I was the mid-wife for my daughter’s birth, and followed the book’s advice exactly. At thirty minutes old she was immersed in the water, her clenched fingers relaxed, the vernix disappeared,the wrinkled skin filled out, her whole body relaxed, she looked straight into my eyes and smiled!”
So it seems babies are able to smile shortly after birth.
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
The Russian writer Vladimir Megre also writes in his books about this subject. The first chapter of his sixth book sheds new light on this. An English translation of that chapter is available online:
http://www.ringingcedars.com/materials/6_ch1.pdf
February 29th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Dude, you’re white, educated, live in the richest country in the world and have enough $$ for Internet access. For us Westerners, life isn’t full of pain as full of opportunities. Babies don’t cry out of pain, they cry out of shock. It’s like getting tears in your eyes after a rollercoaster ride.
Life may not be “beautiful”, but it sure as hell isn’t as depressing as you portray it here. Since when is the fact that life has problems a reason to feel down? Do you really expect the universe to be perfect?
February 29th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
I do, in fact, expect the universe to be perfect. One of the reasons why it remains imperfect is because people expect it to be imperfect, like that is normal. Well, it’s not.
Why should babies experience shock when they are born? Couldn’t it be a more pleasant experience? Why not laugh into the world?
January 29th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
babies cry the minute they are born because it helps them to take gulps of air and which clears out respiratory passage.. some babies smile even on the 1st day itself, some within weeks and some within months..
World may not be perfect but its not such a bad place either..
January 29th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
windy, laughing out loud also helps to take gulps of air etc. so why cry?