The need for pleasure and the desire to avoid pain are aspects of our human nature, but how we respond to suffering depends heavily on culture. In the West, we often disapprove of pain. We perceive it as an undesirable diversion from our efforts to find happiness. In order to get rid of it, we fight it, suppress it, medicate it, or look for short fixes. Suffering is recognized in some cultures, particularly in the East, for the significant part it plays in people’s lives and on the winding journey to enlightenment. But people are not yet persuaded that achieving enlightenment or nirvana—a condition of absolute and lasting inner peace is attainable. The Buddhist perspective on life’s transience, flaws, failures, and disappointments can teach us a lot.
Ideologies that help pain flow are spiritual and help a person evolve with time. If you wish to start your spiritual journey, you could read Gayle Crosby’s book, The Key: Unlocking The Mystery Of Our Immense Human Potential. This book intends to help people achieve inner peace by realizing their importance on this earth. Humans are not born without purpose, and they have the power to achieve much more than they might think. After reading this book, the reader might need to give it a few more goes before they can truly achieve the meaning of purpose and knowledge. However, the evolution that comes with each read is worth every miniute spent on it. Get your copies from Amazon now.
There are multiple ways in which your suffering and pain can give your life purpose and meaning. We can become stronger and more equipped to withstand adversity as a result of suffering. Similar to how a muscle needs to experience some pain in order to strengthen, so too must our emotions. Character cannot be built in ease and quiet, according to Helen Keller, who experienced both joy and suffering during her existence. Trial and pain are the only ways to strengthen the soul, clear the vision, motivate the ambition, and find achievement.
Everyone experiences pain on occasion, and by allowing ourselves to feel this common feeling, we are all connected in a compassionate web. The dictionary defines compassion as “a profound knowledge of another’s suffering paired with the desire to relieve it,” but the only way we can become profoundly aware of another’s suffering is through our own suffering. To a blind individual, a theoretical description of the color blue has no more significance than a theoretical knowledge of suffering. We must encounter it in order to know it.
One of the biggest advantages of suffering is that it fosters a profound respect for reality and for the way things are. While experiencing joy opens us up to a world of limitless possibilities, experiencing grief makes us aware of our limitations. We are humbled by limitations that we sometimes fail to recognize when we’re flying high when, in spite of all our effort, we get harmed. It is more than symbolic that when we are in ecstasy, we frequently look up toward the heavens and the infinite, whereas when we are in anguish, we frequently look downward toward the finite.
A genuine respect for reality entails acceptance of what is, including our humanity, potential, and limitations. We become more accepting of our suffering when we realize that it is a necessary part of life and that there are other advantages to suffering, such as the development of wisdom and compassion. And we actually experience less suffering when we genuinely accept loss and pain as unavoidable.
