Hi all
First of all nice to meet you and thanks for welcoming me in the community.
I've been practicing mindfullness meditation for a number of years but only recently I decided to deepen my knowledge of the Buddha's teachings and started reading Buddhist texts. There is a problem about the alleged 'pessimistic' Buddhist philosophy of life that I would like to discuss with you.
I don't find difficult to understand that dukkha is not a completely negative term, and that the First Noble Thruth is not pessimistic at all (although it's not optimistic either), as with the term dukkha we can signify a number of concepts that go beyond 'sufffering'. I do get that dukkha has more to do with impermanence and the conditioned nature of life rather than with mere 'pain' o 'suffering'.
What I find more difficult to consider non-pessimistic is the Third Noble Thruth and the idea of Nirvana as a way of stopping samsara to keep reproducing itself. From a pratical point of view I get it: following the eightfold path brings you to the cessation of 'thirst' and - in the end - to equanimy and peace. What concerns me is the philosophical aspect of this teaching, as I can't help but considering the theory of Nirvana as life-negating.
In the end, the ultimate goal of the eightfold path is to put an end to samsara, and whoever reaches the stage of Nirvana stops the karma-formations and thus interrputs the cycle of life. If, hypotetically, the whole world was to enter the Nirvana, wouldn't that mean that no life would be created? And wouldn't this mean, quite litteraly, the extintion of life?
Apologies if this sounds trivial to you, I'm just a beginner in the field!