A Dhamma discussion based on the question...

Do you ever feel fear from what the Buddha teaches? How long this has been going on, how many lives this ball has been picking up speed. How many times has it been slowed but never fully stopped, leading onto suffering for a long long time.

I suppose that is the pessimistic view, one could also hold to that the ball has been slowing for a long time, and this life during a time of a Buddha's dispensation is one of the few opportunities to progress quickly towards the goal of the holy life. But then that is a lot of pressure, to wonder about what might happen if this opportunity is not taken advantage of. To throw it away for some cheap pleasure.

When I read the pali canon it seems to increase existential anxiety not decrease. Perhaps this is a common

symptom for westerners.

When I read the pali canon it seems to increase existential anxiety not decrease. Perhaps this is a common symptom for westerners who read much and practice little. There is a lot of fear when I read about how the Buddha advises his monks to practice like their head is on fire or to view sensory pleasure as hot coals. Then to reflect on how I am not living or practising like that, it is cognitive dissonance.

Curious what you think, or if you have seen similar sentiments repeated in others.