Is buddhism pessimistic?
The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths, the first of which is that life has as its nature to have dukkha. Dukkha has been poorly translated into English as "suffering". However, dukkha more accurately can be translated as "unsatisfactory". So, life has as its nature to be unsatisfactory, causing dis-ease, sorrow, anxiety, etc. This is the truth of dukkha. This Truth is also where people get stuck. They don’t seem to look at the rest of the Noble Truths. That there is a way out of Dukkha. The way out is the Noble Eightfold Path.
A fully enlightened being (a buddha) dwells in perpetual bliss, aka happiness, joy. (Heck, joy/rejoicing is the remedy for jealousy!) They are the true nature of the mind, and cannot be destoyed. Desire is another word for attatchment, clinging, grasping which is not helpful. Attatchment is never valid, all it brings is suffering. Attatchment is what sets in when the ego doesn’t get what it wants. Allowing attatchment or desire to rule you is like being a junky–we are addicted to the bad habit of thinking that externals (spouse, weather, new car, chocolate cake, more money) will make us happy. In Buddhism, we aim to destroy all negativities, which are thought to be unnatural. One way to attain this pure happy state is by practicing the 6 perfections: Generosity, Ethics, Patience, Effort, Concentration, and Wisdom. So how can Buddhism be pessimistic–generosity is certainly a positive thing, no?? Maybe there is confusion on the understanding of emptiness? It doesn’t mean the extreme of
