Suffering is a vanity

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Reply Thu 31 Dec, 2009 06:40 pm
Suffering is a vanity.

This comes from Mary Shelley i think, if so could someone point to the work that she did that offers such as 'Suffering is a vanity'???

But even if it doesn't come direct from her, what does 'suffering is a vanity' mean to you or your?
And where else could it have come from?

Would it not be better put that 'misery is a vanity' 'a miserable vanity has caused me...' vanity is miserable then?

(Happy New Year, now lets get on with it, its and our new sufferings, of it, plural:D trying to be clever and failing miserably:D
as all that is new brings failure and no need to be glad of)
 
Deckard
 
Reply Sat 2 Jan, 2010 02:06 am
@sometime sun,
"Vanity" makes me think of Ecclesiastes. "Suffering" makes me think of Buddha.
 
salima
 
Reply Sat 2 Jan, 2010 08:46 am
@sometime sun,
vanity also means futility....if suffering is in vain, it is futile because it doesnt help matters any. so why we do it?

some people welcome suffering because they feel they will become saints or martyrs.

i think suffering and misery are the same thing though...they wrote all my poems.
 
Fido
 
Reply Sat 2 Jan, 2010 05:59 pm
@sometime sun,
sometime sun;115976 wrote:
Suffering is a vanity.

This comes from Mary Shelley i think, if so could someone point to the work that she did that offers such as 'Suffering is a vanity'???

But even if it doesn't come direct from her, what does 'suffering is a vanity' mean to you or your?
And where else could it have come from?

Would it not be better put that 'misery is a vanity' 'a miserable vanity has caused me...' vanity is miserable then?

(Happy New Year, now lets get on with it, its and our new sufferings, of it, plural:D trying to be clever and failing miserably:D
as all that is new brings failure and no need to be glad of)


Absolutly correct; and it is so, so long as you have enough money to escape your suffering, which in her case had something to do with the price of opium...

---------- Post added 01-02-2010 at 07:12 PM ----------

salima;116297 wrote:
vanity also means futility....if suffering is in vain, it is futile because it doesnt help matters any. so why we do it?

some people welcome suffering because they feel they will become saints or martyrs.

i think suffering and misery are the same thing though...they wrote all my poems.

I do not accept your definition, though we may well say: do not use the name of God in futility... Which it may well be if it were used only out of vanity, but where is it not???

Some people suffer in futility and some suffer out of vanity and they are not all the same... The point being that those who suffer out of vanity are getting their reward whether they know it or not, because vanity feeds itself... They do only as their vanity desires...

Those who suffer in futility cannot turn it to any virtue, such as knowledge, or ability, or kindness... Understanding that no matter how lonely we may be, for example, no one sufferes alone may make pain less futile...The ultimate futility of suffering is of those who take out their suffering on others, who cannot endure their pain without passing it one, or multiplying it...It is certain that the pain they cause will revist them in some manor more horrible than they can imagine...
 
salima
 
Reply Sat 2 Jan, 2010 10:58 pm
@Fido,
Fido;116489 wrote:
Absolutly correct; and it is so, so long as you have enough money to escape your suffering, which in her case had something to do with the price of opium...

---------- Post added 01-02-2010 at 07:12 PM ----------


I do not accept your definition, though we may well say: do not use the name of God in futility... Which it may well be if it were used only out of vanity, but where is it not???

Some people suffer in futility and some suffer out of vanity and they are not all the same... The point being that those who suffer out of vanity are getting their reward whether they know it or not, because vanity feeds itself... They do only as their vanity desires...

Those who suffer in futility cannot turn it to any virtue, such as knowledge, or ability, or kindness... Understanding that no matter how lonely we may be, for example, no one sufferes alone may make pain less futile...The ultimate futility of suffering is of those who take out their suffering on others, who cannot endure their pain without passing it one, or multiplying it...It is certain that the pain they cause will revist them in some manor more horrible than they can imagine...


you are quite right-those were two different definitions as given in usage, not meant to be like synonyms. so in the phrase suffering is vanity, depending on who used it, it might mean vanity to express false pride or futility to signify waste. i had a hard time understanding a lot of the quran until i found out when it is written vanity the meaning is futility, frippery, etc.

so suffering is futile in the sense that it cant help matters, but then again suffering does change the heart for the better, if it doesnt break it into dust. and suffering is vain in exactly the ways you stated.

mary shelley was rich and took dope? i was looking at some of what she wrote...i guess she was good, but i dont have the time left here to read fiction and she writes slowly. i guess i just want to know what happens in the story and the end. but she writes a whole lot better stuff than her husband, in my opinion. just like elizabeth barret browning, she also wrote way better than her husband. of course that is a subjective opinion.

sorry sometime, i know that is off topic...
 
 

 
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