The purpose of suffering
Suffering takes on many forms - as fear, annoyance, impatience, hate, unhappiness, and discomfort. Whatever its form, suffering plays different roles depending on one’s culture and context. In some cases, it’s expected as the normative consequence for being ignorant or unfortunate. In others, it’s a badge of honor, dignity, and virtue - a means to a higher place in the scheme of things. In yet others, like in Buddhism, it is what we strive to free ourselves and all beings from.
If we take responsibility for our experience - what a concept! - we discover that suffering is like water, taking on whatever purpose we assign to it. If we think its purpose is to punish or enlighten us, we will resist or accept it accordingly.
From a Buddhist perspective, the purpose of suffering is to remind us that we have taken our attention away from appreciation and gratitude and instead focused it on the deficiency of what we don’t like, don’t have, and don’t want. Realizing this, the cycle of suffering is short-circuited as we thank it for the reminder and intentionally return our focus on what we have, what we enjoy, what we want, and how we can be fully engaged in this moment.
April 18th, 2005 22:31
What Jack has said here is so smart. I’ve carried the same knowlege around, thinking it was rare to me, thinking I was the only person privileged enough to have suffered and learned. It’s becoming aparent though that there are many people of like minds out there. I guess that’s a good thing. Maybe not good for my ego, but pretty nice in general. Maybe more people will arrive at the same conclusion. I suppose that is the purpose, that’s why we blog.
April 19th, 2005 19:45
Wonderful post, Jack. Thanks.
April 19th, 2005 20:24
You’re welcome, G. As for the post being smart, it may be, but it’s definitely a challenge. I hope my observations are not taken as glib injunctions. Life continues to percolate with things we don’t spontaneously much enjoy or appreciate. And even though there is even a kind of salve to projecting responsibility on other people and things for the unhappiness they seem to provoke, we don’t actually grow up until we take resposibility for our own focus and the impact it has on our capacity for peace and joy.
April 19th, 2005 21:58
Yes, a wonderful post. Thank you.
April 20th, 2005 07:05
I don’t know much about Buddhism, but as far as existentialism goes, this post pretty much nails both the responsibility aspect and the deeper freedom that comes by accepting it. I wonder if Sartre and Camus had read up on Buddhism…
For me suffering is either a wind or a fire. If it is a wind I have a contest to see how far I can bend with it, if it is a fire, I just sit still and let myself be tempered.