Suffering is part of the human condition.

      Job argued that humankind would suffer distress as inevitably as birds would take to the wing.¹

      Bruce Dawe, an Australian poet, spoke with poignancy of life's wretchedness and glory.²

Avoidance

      We seek to avoid suffering. This response is physiological and psychological. We automatically recoil from pain-inducing situations. We also assume that more is to be gained by avoiding suffering than by confronting or enduring it. The suffering may be physical, economic, or political.

      Because of advances in medical science, we regard illness as an aberration rather than an inevitable aspect of the human experience. Furthermore, many have come to expect that others--medicos, hospitals and government instrumentalities--are morally and legally obligated to remove the cause of their suffering.

      This attitude does not always work to our advantage, often encouraging a Pollyanna-like attitude towards suffering. As Victor Frankl argued, we are gripped by the illusion that there is someone who knows how to relieve our deepest pain.³

Confession

      I have to confess that I consider myself fortunate to be living in the "Lucky Country" in a period of history when so many resources are dedicated to the treatment and eradication of disease, to the management of pain and to the challenging of injustice. Furthermore, I have no desire to court suffering for suffering's sake. This would be masochistic. It could indicate that I was attempting to atone for past errors or to recommend myself to a superior being who demanded I punish myself. It may suggest that I was seeking to locate my specialness in my suffering or that [277] society had scripted such a role for me.

      On the other hand, to avoid suffering, as if it represented the ultimate evil, is to overlook the role suffering plays in our development and wholeness.

Degrees of suffering

      It is important to distinguish between lesser suffering and greater suffering. A toothache is a good illustration of the former, which increases self-preoccupation. The latter is visceral and often life-threatening. It is this second type of suffering that exposes bedrock realities, causing us to reassess our priorities.

Benefits

      Unavoidable suffering offers us a range of benefits. These are appropriated if we embrace our suffering. The embrace may well come after a fierce struggle and does not imply abject surrender. The suffering challenges our self-preoccupation and gives us access to the deeper self and to the Spirit. As Rumi commented, it is when our lives are broken that we discover that that this process has given God access to our souls.⁴

      It is through suffering that we gain insights that would otherwise be unavailable to us. As the Eskimo shaman, Igjugaijuk, explained to the explorer, Knut Rasmussen, true wisdom, which lies far from humankind, in the great loneliness, is reached only through suffering.⁵

      Suffering fosters compassion, which is born in those whose hearts have been laid open by pain.⁶

      Suffering also promotes self-emptying and self-giving. It gives us unique access to others, who are no longer on the defensive because they are intimidated by us. Any notion of superiority or control that we imagine we possess is dissolved. Forced to confront our weakness, we become attractive to others because of our vulnerability and groundedness.

      Suffering also enhances our capacity for forgiveness. This was evident from comments on a torn scrap of paper discovered beside a dead child in the concentration camp at Ravensbruck, [278] which urged God to forgive those responsible for the genocide and suggested that the fruits born of the suffering could form a basis for the forgiveness.⁷

      Suffering can also transform us into wounded healers.⁸

      Andrew Harvey suffered many hurts, not the least of which was his abandonment by his parents. Reflecting on this experience from his mature years he concluded that it has been a karmic preparation for his life's work.⁹

Pain and suffering

      I have been using the word "suffering" without distinguishing between pain, for which there are physiological receptors, and suffering, which has to do with attitude.

      It is possible to experience little pain while enduring considerable suffering. Some people experience great pain but little suffering.

      While pain and suffering are usually experienced in tandem, it is possible for the pain to be transcended.

Suffering and bliss

      This would help explain the Hindu contention that life is essentially blissful. According to this view, suffering is a deception, for at its core one discovers rapture.¹⁰ As Campbell commented, life is energised by bliss. We might imagine we are in pain or trouble, but, at a deeper level, beneath the pain and the trouble, we will discover bliss.¹¹

      It is by contacting the bliss, in our pain, that we are able to embrace our suffering. It is thus that suffering can be accepted as a gift, a problematic gift, but a gift nonetheless. Bruce Dawe, highlighting this enigma, argues that happiness derives from brokenness.¹²

Buddhism and suffering

      All that I have said about suffering may appear to be contradicted by the Buddhist notion that life is one long paean of suffering, suffering that needs to be overcome. The contradiction, [279] however, is more apparent than real.

      Buddhism, like Hinduism, views life as an illusion. It is not that our physical circumstances are imaginary, insubstantial or ghostly. It is rather that we do not see into the inwardness of physical reality or life itself. Buddhism argues that suffering is brought about by an underlying craving or lusting for that which is illusory and unsatisfying. This suffering decreases in intensity as we free ourselves from attachment to things, people and plans. Canvassing this perspective, Ram Dass argued that we suffer because we identify with our thoughts, and it is our thoughts that cause us suffering. He went on to contend that we should cease identifying so closely with our thoughts. We should distance ourselves from our thoughts, so that we can enjoy them without being entangled in them.¹³

      We need to hold lightly to things, rather than being captive to them.

Bodhisattvas

      According to the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, the truly enlightened, rather than disappearing into nirvana--a state of being rather than a place--remain or return to help fellow travellers. These Bodhisattvas participate in the sorrows of the world.

      When the Dalai Lama was asked about the disparity between the Buddhist tradition, with its emphasis on the overcoming of suffering, and the Christian tradition, which seem to be preoccupied with pain, he replied that suffering isn't overcome by leaving pain behind, but by bearing it for others.¹⁴ Christians, with Jesus as their example, would wholeheartedly endorse this sentiment. They would also want to argue that the God they worship shares their suffering.

Joy and pain

      Andrew Harvey has argued that we cannot have joy without pain, or life without death. He went on to contend that we must dance for creation and destruction, with an awareness that they are [280] encompassed by a process that transcends both.¹⁵

A final word

      In suggesting that we embrace our suffering, I am not implying that we should overlook the fact that we could be contributing to our own suffering, or to that of others. Nor does it relieve us of the responsibility to attempt to lessen the suffering of others or to challenge the injustice that so often contributes to it. [282]

[LS 277-282]