Thread: Which do you prefer: Optimism or Pessimism?

Heh-heh. I try but the temptation of honey-comb ice cream is just far greater :9---
My college has a pool which can be used by student during lunch time, so when I enroll it'll just be easier to do it then ^^

I'm not a fan of rose colored glasses. And in spite of my username, I'm also not a fan of dark shades. They both distort. Dianeva stated it much more eloquently than I could.

Ultimately, optimist/pessimist is just another false dichotomy. Dualities are traps for the foolish but the wise reject the whole notion of duality and strive to encompass wholeness instead.

Originally Posted by Mireille

Heh-heh. I try but the temptation of honey-comb ice cream is just far greater :9---

Where can I get this 'honey-comb ice cream'?

Ice cream is basically the unhealthiest food on the planet.

Dianeva, that was perfect.

Originally Posted by Dianeva

Second, there's optimism that comes through understanding. This is a lot rarer and better, and if I were to force myself to be happy I don't think I'd ever experience it. I experience it sometmes, in the midsts of depression, I'll see the stars and moon or something and feel there is hope, think about life and how we are here, etc. That positivity that comes through understanding is honest and I have no problem with that type.

The best experiences of my life have happened this way.

Who would actually "prefer" pessimism over optimism?
Who would rather feel like everything in life is shit rather than feel like everything in life is golden?

I don't prefer pessimism over optimism. I would rather think the sun shines out of my ass. But I don't.
By nature, upbringing, genetics, unconscious choice, whatever-it-may-be, I am generally a pessimist.
Most of the time I'd call myself a realist more than anything, but that'd just be my tendency to think what's real is what is crap.
Yep.

Hey Dianeva if you guys have "Morrisons" supermarkets in Canada you can buy them there in the freezer depts. It is very yummy :9--- but I have to agree that it is unhealthy :_( I could eat an entire tub to myself ^^ but I'm already pretty doughy as it is - any more and I'll be spherical XD

The ice cream is honey comb flavored not actually honey comb shaped... that would've been pretty interesting to see :3

Pragmatism.

Chaotic bipolar shuffling. The world is what it is so I tend to have a pessimistic view about it. But since I think it is better to make people smile than frown I try to balance the scales with more optimistic approach. Which leads directly into my original answer.

Oooooooh an ouroboros *.*

Nice attitude though Unelias =D Smiles all around ^^

Originally Posted by Dianeva

I try to see things realistically. If something genuinely upsets me, I let myself realize it. I would never force myself to focus on the positive or the negative. if I feel a certain way toward something, I feel it. If I chose to focus only on the positive or negative, it would be a bit like I was brainwashing myself, preventing myself from seeing things honestly, which I wouldn't want to do. I personally tend to focus on the negative, especially lately as there's a lot of crap in my life right now, but I would not try to force myself to think any other way than my mind naturally wants to. It feels dishonest.

My mind is kind of dividing optimism or just happiness into two types. First, there is optimism based on ignorance. A person who exercises this is likely to tell others to be happy and smile, without actually realizing that there might be something very wrong and that they can't handle the situation like that. I find this type quite annoying. Second, there's optimism that comes through understanding. This is a lot rarer and better, and if I were to force myself to be happy I don't think I'd ever experience it. I experience it sometmes, in the midsts of depression, I'll see the stars and moon or something and feel there is hope, think about life and how we are here, etc. That positivity that comes through understanding is honest and I have no problem with that type.

This is why I am focusing on mediation so much recently. It helps to see that the mind is really an illusion and that there's just a bunch of mental factors. They're like plants and are nothing personal. They're not "you". So things like stress, anger, and other unhealthy "negative" emotions are just weeds in the headspace. Pulling them out doesn't make "you" less "you".

On the whole, I think that a fine appreciation of the existence of suffering (both that of your own and others) is paramount to understanding the world. Shakyamuni singled out illness, old age, and death as the three divine messengers that tell us to live. I met somebody with cancer yesterday and was very grateful for the opportunity.

To say that "everything is good" is delusion. I often see it associated with the "law of attraction".

"it is what it is" is the way of the sages. And that's ok.

I would say that i am a pessimistic optimist

I say optimistic things but with a pessimistic, sarcastic attitude. Some people call me a douche and others call me a great guy... you decide

Hey! That's my line. I've used it somewhere on DV before
Except I'm the opposite. I tend to think the worst or "realistically" but I project optimism so not to bring others down and to try to bring myself up.
Disregard my earlier post though I don't see it being in complete conflict

Originally Posted by Mireille

Oooooooh an ouroboros *.*

You can see it as that, too. A circle is also the highest form in calligraphy. Since painting a perfect circle in freehand with one motion is pretty much something no one can ever achieve, it has a lot of symbolism that can be reflected in life's other areas. Ouroboros is also a very good symbol, which I knew when I picked that picture.

PhilosopherStoned, I have pondered same kind of things you brought up for the past years. Most of the meditation forms focus in the goal of losing ego which I have always seen as those things you mentioned. Don't know if that is what people in the past meant, but that is how I have decryphed it. Losing all demands of ego ie. rage, anger, fear, need to prove things etc. When that "divine" mindstate is achieved, you really start to see the world like it is. With eyes unclouded by trivial things or factors. Like you said it, it is what it is. Nothing else.

That's how I see it, at least.

I suppose I am mostly an optimist and also a realist. I consider myself pretty good at knowing when things just arnt going to work out and I accept it and move on.

Case in point...two weeks ago I was suppose to get married. But, due to my mom doing something she shouldnt have to my fiancee's mom and then her mom retaliating in a way which was also not in good form, our wedding got canceled 5 days before it was suppose to happen. And now my fiancee is back in taiwan considering if she even wants to be with me even though I was the only one who actually tried to rectify the situation.

Yes, it is sad and depressing to have to cancel a wedding so close to the date. Embarrassing even...but the weird thing is, without any self delusions, the thought just came to my mind that maybe she really isnt the one for me and I should be looking at this as an opportunity to find someone who meshes with my personality better. Her reactions to things has revealed some qualities about her that I really dont like that I wouldnt have found out about until later in marriage.

So yes, optimist and realist would be the main things...with a heavy "it is what it is" for things that I dont see good in.

Originally Posted by Xei

Ice cream is basically the unhealthiest food on the planet.

That sounds pretty pessimistic and non-pragmatic.

ICE CREAM!!!! ;9----

Ice-creamice-creamice-cream!!!! =D

:# I have no idea why I said all that ^_^

Originally Posted by Unelias

Most of the meditation forms focus in the goal of losing ego which I have always seen as those things you mentioned. Don't know if that is what people in the past meant, but that is how I have decryphed it.

The Goose by Wei Wu Wei:

Destroy the ego? Hound it, beat it, snub it, tell it where it gets off?
Great fun, no doubt. But, where is it? Must you not find it first?
Isn't there a word about catching your goose before you cook it?

The great difficulty here is that there isn't one.

Seeing the truth in that is easier said than done.

That's why I said that it is pretty much decryphing especially if you follow zen meditation traditions. So many cryptic word plays and symbolism.
Oh well, I quess it comes to me in 30-40 years. Or then not.

Pessimism, optimism tends to discourage and dissapoint me.

Optimism. Because ever since I was seven years old I was told the world is gonna end and Im gonna die some horrible holocaust type death. Well I'm still around but the doomsday stories haven't changed and quite frankly I got tired of them.

And again, ever since I was a child I've learned about pollution. And I remember being told that when I grow up there won't be any forests left. Well pollution is still real and destroying habitats, but no ones really doing anything. I've since learned that when you present people with horrifying statistics, such as X number of people die each year from starvation or an X number of species go extinct - their reaction tends to be there is nothing they can do about these overwhelming horrors except continue living life ignorantly and wait for the world to fall apart, so we sit around and fantasize about doomsday to release us from our insanity.

I'm tired of that too.

Its only the pessimists who think that optimism is automatically about some end result. That optimism says good things will turn out. So people except something good, and when things dont go their way they become miserable and blame optimism. Optimism was never about an end result. Talk to REAL optimists.

The world outside the optimists doesn't define the optimists happiness. What the optimist believes in is an inner good and an inner happiness, that no outer event in the world can take away. And its because that no outer event in the world can take away this inner happiness and this inner good, can the optimist bring that happiness and good to any event in their life.

Its also incorrect to say that optimists are ignorant of the horrors of the world.

Lets look at it this way: Who is more likely to run a non-profit organization to end world hunger? Who is more likely to go into a poor nation and feed the starving by hand? Someone who doesn't think it'll make any difference, or someone who does?

Ignore the meany heads and look at the good in life. I am...trying to be an optimist. I was a pessimist for the last 16 years, AKA my whole life. I got tired of being unhappy so I decided to set off on a journy optimisim. I keep trying to see the good in things even if some fat kid threatens to sit on me the next time i look at him wrong. ^_^

Optimism, because you always get what you expect.

I prefer optimism, but I guess I'm pessimism. I miss the time I was positive.