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Meaning of Suffering

Pain by Donatella Marraoni (2018)


Suffering is either manmade or beyond man’s control. The concentration camps of Hitler and refugee camps engendered by wars are all manmade suffering. Natural calamities and epidemic outbreaks are largely beyond human control. There is also much suffering we bring upon ourselves by our actions or attitudes.
Whatever the type, suffering can never be a sanguine thing. No sane person would want to embrace suffering for any reason. The most natural tendency for normal human beings is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Yet pain is an integral part of life. There is no likelihood of your ever encountering a person who has not experienced pain of some sort. The Buddha went to the extreme of defining life as pain.
The Buddha’s solution is to put an end to our desires. Desires are the causes of pain. The Buddha is speaking about one kind of pain only, the pain we bring upon ourselves through our passions and pursuits. And his solution is neither practical nor desirable. What is life without desires, passions and pursuits? Moreover, the Buddha’s solution won’t put an end to all the suffering engendered by factors which are not in our control in any way, and much human suffering belongs to that category.
Perhaps the Serenity Prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr can give us a better solution. “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” That’s the prayer. A profoundly meaningful prayer it is. Much of our suffering can be tamed if we change certain things like our habits, attitudes, thinking, and responses to situations. We can change the situations that cause our suffering. If we cannot change them, we need to accept them gracefully.
Suffering cannot become meaningful, perhaps. But suffering can alter us in miraculous ways. Serenity is only one of the gifts of suffering.
I walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow;
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh! The things I learned from her,
When Sorrow walked with me.

That’s a poem by Robert Browning Hamilton, American poet. Suffering can teach us many deep lessons of life. That is arguably the only blessing of suffering. Those lessons constitute the meaning of suffering. Suffering can shake us out of our complacencies and move us towards thinking about things that really matter in life. It can make us better human beings. Suffering can be a potent force for our personal growth and change.

I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa

This post is the 7th in a series on Meaning of Life.
The 1st was: What is the meaning of life?
2nd: Religion and Meaning
3rd: Career and Meaning
4th: Science and Meaning
5th: Literature and Meaning
6th: Meaning of Meaninglessness
8th and the last will be: Love: the ultimate meaning






Comments

  1. Srishti RajeevSeptember 16, 2019 at 11:03 PM

    Desire is the cause of pain is true to an extent. Heavy but much needed read

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arti_amidst berries of lifeSeptember 16, 2019 at 11:32 PM

    I'm still not able to understand what exactly is a suffering

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sanjota PurohitSeptember 17, 2019 at 5:54 AM

    Sometimes I feel it is all in our head. We just need to learn to be happy irrespective of the situation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 17, 2019 at 6:28 AM

      Diseases, bereavement, hunger, displacement... they are objective facts out there.

      Delete
  4. Mayura AmarkantSeptember 17, 2019 at 12:33 PM

    Loved your post! Extremely poignant and thought-provoking. Keep writing such posts I love reading your thoughts. #MyFriendAlexa #DiaryOfAnInsaneWriter

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousSeptember 17, 2019 at 4:16 PM

    Wow, so succinct and profound, Tomichan! Such a gem this one! Have to read your earlier posts on this series.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tina SequeiraSeptember 17, 2019 at 4:17 PM

    Wow, so succinct and profound, Tomichan! Such a gem this one! Have to read your earlier posts on this series.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 18, 2019 at 8:31 PM

      Will be delighted to hear your views on the other posts as well.

      Delete
  7. Manas "Sameer" MukulSeptember 18, 2019 at 7:10 PM

    Suffering is pretty subjective but I like your take on it. Nice work.
    #ContemplationOfaJoker #Jokerophilia #MyFriendAlexa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalSeptember 18, 2019 at 8:30 PM

      I don't deny the subjectivity of suffering. But suffering is universal and hence I thought of looking at it from this meaning perspective. Glad you liked it.

      Delete

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