" “Why is life so hard?”, a phrase so common and so cliché to the point it is used sarcastically, and yet the question always seems to make its way into our thoughts, onto books and articles, and slipping off the tips of our tongues in conversations. We imagine a perfect life where everything goes our way and where life is easy to navigate, where we don’t have to go to work or school five times a week. No work, no stress, and no pressure; a peaceful utopia we dream of.However, we often contradict our longing for this ‘perfect life’; it would make more sense to condemn negativity and favor positivity if we want that ideal life, but in reality compliments mean nothing in the face of criticism. Someone else’s problems may just be some juicy gossip for you, and the news rarely mentions anything good but instead focuses on tragedies instead. Our life is surrounded by negativity and suffering and even though we desire a peaceful and happy life, we subconsciously put a spotlight on that negativity. So why, as humans dreaming of happiness, do we gravitate towards negativity? It may be hard to believe that humans inherently need to suffer, especially when our ideal life consists of no suffering, but it is believed by many philosophers that suffering is ingrained into human existence. Although it sounds pessimistic there is no life without suffering, no matter how minor the suffering is. The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevksy expresses in his novella Notes from Underground this thought, and that progress and development that aims to mitigate suffering on an individual and collective level, merely changes the source of suffering in our lives. For example, the many technological advances humanity has managed to achieve eliminates certain problems in our life and thus makes our life easier, however new problems arise, although easier to handle than problems before the advancement, they are still problems that cause a certain level of suffering.
And even though our problems are getting less severe and our life is getting easier than it is before, we are never satisfied. Innovation after innovation, update after update, we are always seeking ways to make our lives easier. Of course it is never a bad thing, but when will we ever reach the end? It is as if nothing will ever satisfy human desire and we are forever left in a deficit. Dostoyevsky describes, in the same novella, that even if one were to have all the happiness in the world to the point where they could just “sleep, eat cakes and busy [themself] with the continuation of [their] species”, they would still find a way to ruin it all. To Dostoyevsky, humanity needs to have the little imperfections in life in order to prove that they are “not the keys of a piano” but human, as if it were necessary to prove so in the first place. He believes that humanity needs this sense of self-agency provided by suffering, so even if everyone were living their perfect, happy, and peaceful life, people would still find a way to ruin that life in favor of an imperfect life, and this idea is supported by humanity’s extensive history of violence and conflict.
Similarly, Buddhism also acknowledges that suffering is a fundamental part of human life, however it pinpoints that our extensive desire as human beings is the cause of our suffering. This specifically refers to desiring pleasure, material goods, and immortality, so the solution offered by Buddhism is to stop the longing for things that will ultimately never satisfy you. By doing so, according to Buddhism, it will eliminate suffering. This concept and idea from Buddhism then later influenced German philosopher Arther Schopenhauer, who then influenced another German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzche.
However Nietzsche disagreed with Schopenhauer and Buddhism, as he believed that to limit our desires was to live in denial of an innate aspect of human life. Rather, he believed in finding a way to live in harmony with suffering, or to find gratitude for existence. Our happiness and joys are heightened and maybe even defined by overcoming suffering, for example how achieving an easy A* grade would be less satisfying than having an academic comeback, going from B’s and C’s to an A*. By first experiencing something bad, we can fully appreciate the good.
It is hard to grasp how suffering surrounds our daily life and looms over our minds. Even though the ideal utopia we all dream of seems a little less feasible now, it does not mean happiness is unattainable. No matter our opinions on suffering, happiness, and life, the final goal of all these teachings and theories is to be as happy as one can be. Suffering being an intrinsic part of life does not take away the happiness of life.
Sources:
The Harder You Try, The Worse It Gets - The Philosophy of Fyodor Dostoevsky
Schopenhauer vs Nietzsche: The Meaning of Suffering
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