What's your real-life example of "ignorance is bliss"?

Worldwide suffering and genocides
The fact that Donald Trump is so popular.

Conservatives belief on climate change??

Religionism.
Nationalism.
Conservatism.
Racism.

Staying too long with my ex husband all the while believing that it would change for the better. That happened when I left, and after a few years, found the one I was worth the effort.

The fact that these kind of pastors exist. And that people in the pews are actually laughing in the background.

@rockfan
Problem is, biblically, he is correct.

@ragingloli I guess that really illustrates the contradictions of the bible.

I wish I didn’t know the horrible conditions of factory farming. I love meat, but every time I eat it, I feel a little depressed thinking about the horrible lives the animals lived just for me to eat them.

The first 20 years of my adulthood, I looked at the world through the lens of Critical Theory, which is a mostly academic discipline of understanding the world and its cultural manifestations in terms of the oppression and marginalization of “minority” groups by a group or groups that assert hegemonic power over a given social/cultural/political space. For example, an imperial power perpetuating a narrative of bringing civilization to “savages” while colonizing the savages’ territory, subjugating the savages, and denying the savages their own narrative. As I discovered, you can literally go to the ends of the earth and beginning of time and not escape this feature of the human condition. All of this was very depressing for me, and I felt as if I had painted myself into a corner. It was important to me to not be a part of that, but there’s no solution to that problem.

Then I found Advaita Vedanta, which is a spiritual path that falls under Hinduism. Advaita says (in so many words) “life is but a dream.” So the effect for me has been an understanding that all of this that we typically call life is a projection, an illusion, and a delusion. What’s false is every manifestation that is “not me” and what is true is that all of this is the play of a universal consciousness. Even our conventional sense of self is an illusion.

So the ignorance is of anything happening in the world. Nothing really happens. It’s all a light show powered by this consciousness. How can one know anything if the entire blanket of what we usually refer to as reality is false?

It’s important to add that the “truth” of my assertion above isn’t understood intellectually. Rather it is on that is realized through observation. While I read about it and listened to teachers to get on the right track, the confirmation of it comes only through my own practice of inquiry. It’s an understanding that is “seen.”

The bliss is coming to see that our true nature is peace, love, harmony, and tranquility. Everything unfolds exactly as it should, and trouble only comes when one carries expectations or when one suffers from the delusion that he or she is the doer of their life. “Life takes care of itself, and I have nothing to do with it,” is what an Advaita master would say. I can say that mountains have moved for me in effortless fashion since I have come to this understanding. In my experience, when I was able to still my mind, the world started rotating around me instead of me struggling to move in the world.

My knee-jerk answer to this is most any Liberal mind set…but to answer this sincerely….as I get older and the more I know, the more questions I have and the more I find myself challenging modern myths and preconceptions. I wish I could swap out my brain I have for the 10–12 year old brain I once had where the world around me seemed so much more magical and simple.

Serious health issues.
I want to be one of those people that doesn’t feel well for a few weeks, goes to the doctor and is told I have a month to live. haha
I have no plans of undergoing any invasive medical procedures in the event of a serious illness.
No chemo for cancer, no major surgeries, no heart surgeries if I end up with a heart condition, etc.

No thanks, I’ll opt to die naturally, enjoy my last weeks, months, days, with a lot of morphine of course, lol….or exercise my right to die if the bitter end is going to be especially bitter.
Yay…California just passed right to die legislation!

When it comes to general knowledge and understanding, I cannot imagine any instance where I would rather not know, and be happier for it, than know.

While attending a family reunion two years ago, Mom and her two sisters (all in their 80’s and 90’s) started discussing their father’s long-term extramarital affair with a woman he “kept” in a rented apt. near his office. This was shocking news to my brother, a cousin and me, who were all present. Our beloved grandfather who seemed to care so much for his family had suddenly gone from saintly status to a cad.

A year later, the family gathered again for Mom’s memorial service. The topic cropped up again, and this time, my sister was present. She was already emotional, and this bit of news really shook her up. In an attempt to console her, our brother’s wife (#2) moved to sit next to her and said, “Don’t be upset; all men have affairs. Your brother did.” Thanks SIL. We didn’t know about this, and I’m willing to bet that two of his children who were present didn’t either.

I would have been happy to die without knowing either of these family facts.

About 1999 I discontinued TV service, in no small part because of the 24 hour news cycle and its endless barrage of negativity.
I broke the rule 9–11-2001 and allowed myself to view some horrific footage of the World Trade Center that bangs in my brain my brain to this day.
Columbine caught me unawares because I had internet access by then, and watched footage and learned details I could well blissfully forget.
By Sandy Hook, I had a handle on it, and I’m at peace with the images and knowledge I have of the tragedy.

Video is like someone has taken control of what you remember visually, and when, if you’re exposed to TV news. IMO.

@ibstubro I disconnected after 9/11. No TV since, ain’t missin’; a thing.

I know, @Coloma. I know.
I’ve sampled, and I think you disapproved?

@ibstubro I don’t remember that, clue me in?

Violence against women. It has literally brought me to tears this week.

The global refugee situation. So sad. For all concerned. Those who are fleeing and those in countries where they are arriving by the thousand. Heartbreaking and complicated to resolve.

In general, I feel intelligence isn’t necessary in modern times because we are no longer subjected to selective pressure in an environment where our survival depended on it. As a real life example, a hunter-gatherer who did not correctly conceive a solution to provide food or shelter died along with his or her progeny, whereas someone like myself (when I worked on Wall Street in my early twenties) made a similar conceptual mistake, only instead of dieing, I received a substantial bonus and became a more attractive mate from financial success. In short, from personal experience, ignorance-is-bliss applies to most examples out there. It is easier to list examples where I think ignorance is not bliss and that would be in basic survival, i.e, agriculture, shelter, health, and recreation (psychological health). I’m apathetic to pretty much everything else.

I found cynicism do be just as good as experience. Whenever I assumed the worst of people i found myself to be mostly right. At this point, for me, human value is based on their entertainment value. An individual being a means to an end. With this outlook, I spend most of time self-indulging auditorily, visually, orally, and sexually. Entertainers and inventors of various recreations/electronics that serve to pleasure my senses are what I find value in.

To this day I do not know if Dugger is pronounced “DOO-ger” or “DUG-gar”.

Truly, ignorance can be bliss.

Ignorance is never blissful, cannot think of one incident where it is.

@Hypocrisy_Central How is finding out that both my grandfather and brother each had an extramarital affair beneficial?

^ How is finding out that both my grandfather and brother each had an extramarital affair beneficial?
That would be very personal from person to person, not knowing the details or the dynamics of your family I can only go off generic reasoning that you don’t continue living and defending a misconception to people who may have known and you did not. You can know the possibility of siblings out there before chance happens them upon you and you ”discover them” by blind side. Things of that nature.