(November 8, 2022 at 6:18 pm)Ahriman Wrote: This is correct, suffering is not necessary at all, no matter how many stupid people will claim suffering is necessary.
Yes, but with a caveat.
Necessity implies a goal. If you want not to burn off your hand, suffering when you put your hand on a hot stove will cause you to remove it, thereby saving your hand. In that sense, it's necessary to suffer.
Is it necessary that humans keep their hands intact, or survive, or live in comfort, or exist on any level? No.
The same goes for "evil" itself. Can the devil be evil? Can a mass murderer be evil? No-- it's all just a change of material state, accompanied by suffering perhaps. What makes it evil?
Buddhists play with this-- see the emptiness in horror, in grief, etc. and analyze it all philosophically. Some of them get very good at disengaging from suffering. In that sense, I'd argue that to an enlightened Buddhist, nothing can really be evil.
