I don't normally post on Sundays--trying to keep my weekends at least a little bit internet free--but today I've been thinking about suffering.
Most religious people at some level believe that suffering is good for you--the refiner's fire and all that. But right now I don't see the point. It's just such an enormous waste of everything. Time. Energy. Spirit. It just . . . wears you down.
8 comments:
The only thing that I can think of that suffering has given me is compassion for those going through where I have been. Virtual hugs for you.
Amelia, Doll, thanks for the hugs. And the wisdom. You're right about this.
Agreed with Amelia, both about the compassion and about the hugs. And I agree with you, too, darling Ann. xoxo
I don't think there's always a point. I think they tell us there is because it's too horrible to think that there isn't.
hugs do help, though. xo
Here's the hurdle I can't quite get past: If the thing I get from suffering is compassion for other people's suffering, then isn't there a point at which someone's suffering is unnecessary? How much suffering does it take to become compassionate? Is being able to feel bad for someone else really a good enough reason for feeling bad yourself? This has never made sense to me as an explanation for suffering. Why don't we all just not suffer?
On a completely different track: there is an interesting idea out in the universe about how pain is a real and unavoidable part of life (for whatever reason) but suffering is entirely voluntary. (This is clearly not the way the word "suffering" is used in the scriptures. In the scriptures, people suffer pain.) The voluntary suffering comes in when we either wallow in our pain (magnifying it) or try to resist and eliminate the pain that--like it or not--exists no matter what we do. When we find in ourselves the place of seeing pain and accepting it, irrespective of its unpleasantness, then we let ourselves stop suffering and carry on with living. That's when we can feel the unpleasantness of the pain without letting it block out the joy. Sometimes it takes a greater measure of God's grace to do this than at others.
Ann, what's going on? Is everything alright? Maybe you need a trip to Oregon.
Oregon would be good. Vegas would be better.
I understand exactly how you feel. It sometimes seems much much easier to stay in bed and just exist. And, sometimes that is exactly what you need to do. Hugs.
I wish I could provide some perspective on suffering and why we have to suffer, but I can't. My own suffering is too near the surface. And I have to admit, that I often question why it has to happen to good people and why more bad people can't suffer
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