Day 36 of 365: Suffering and the Extremes

Today's shenanigans involve looking into the nature of all our suffering.  By this point, Nagarjuna and Khenpo have amassed an array of weapons grade arguments to deal with this.  For example, you could look at the arising, abiding, and ceasing of suffering.  You could look at the relationship between the suffering and the sufferer.  You could also look at this from the standpoint of causes and conditions.  At this point, our conceptual framework is starting to get a little shaky, even if you don't feel with certainty the validity of each of those arguments.  Here's one more: suffering cannot come from any of the four extremes.  Suffering can't come from itself, because there would be nothing to stop it from arising from itself again and again.  Suffering can't come from something other than itself.  That implies a causal relationship, which we have already shown as impossible.  Remember the seed and sprout?  The sprout can't arise from the seed, because when the seed is here the sprout is gone.  In order for something to arise from something else, that other thing must be here.  Suffering can't come from both itself and something else because that carries the flaws of each argument.  Suffering can't arise from neither.  Suffering clearly does not just arise without a cause.