Suffering's Nature
"All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming." - Helen Keller. Pain is inevitable. But, suffering is optional. Nailed to the cross, Christ's pain must have been unbearable. Yet, even then, he had enough compassion, enough love to say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Pain did not cause him to suffer. Instead in a state of divine ecstasy, he communed with his Father.
Suffering masquerades sometimes as worry, a wasteful abuse of self. Mullah Nasruddin spending a sleepless night, complained to his wife, "I promised Abdullah I would return his loan tomorrow. But I can't." Nasruddin's wife went up to Abdullah and said, "Nasruddin will not pay you tomorrow." Then she advised Nasruddin, "Go to sleep. Let him worry now."
Suffering is self-inflicted punishment resulting often from guilt. The Buddha, on the road to enlightenment, guilty over past indulgences, starved himself to unconsciousness. Reviving, he heard a passing musician tell his student. "See, this ektara, it plays when there is the right tension in the string. Too tight, it breaks, too loose, it sags." And Buddha understood. Suffering pulled the strings tight, indulgence made them sag. He discovered the madhyama marga, the middle path. He never starved again.
Suffering is a sign of laziness, an easy slide into depression. There are always other choices, if we are bold. Two men were sentenced to die. The first suffered his fate silently. The second said, "Your majesty, give me a year. I'll make your horse fly." The king acceded. Later when quizzed about his promise, he answered, "Who knows? A year is a long time. In a year, the king may die, or the horse may die. Why, in a year, the horse may even learn to fly!"
Suffering is an essentially enjoyable, attention-seeking activity. The Master was taking a night train. As he glided into sleep, he heard a weak voice from the berth below, raised in a wail, "Oh! How thirsty I am!" Moved by the old woman's plight, he got her a glass of water. Having settled her in comfortably, he was finally drifting into blissful slumber, when a lament shattered the peace. "Oh! How thirsty I was!"
--- Chandrika
"All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming." - Helen Keller. Pain is inevitable. But, suffering is optional. Nailed to the cross, Christ's pain must have been unbearable. Yet, even then, he had enough compassion, enough love to say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Pain did not cause him to suffer. Instead in a state of divine ecstasy, he communed with his Father.
Suffering masquerades sometimes as worry, a wasteful abuse of self. Mullah Nasruddin spending a sleepless night, complained to his wife, "I promised Abdullah I would return his loan tomorrow. But I can't." Nasruddin's wife went up to Abdullah and said, "Nasruddin will not pay you tomorrow." Then she advised Nasruddin, "Go to sleep. Let him worry now."
Suffering is self-inflicted punishment resulting often from guilt. The Buddha, on the road to enlightenment, guilty over past indulgences, starved himself to unconsciousness. Reviving, he heard a passing musician tell his student. "See, this ektara, it plays when there is the right tension in the string. Too tight, it breaks, too loose, it sags." And Buddha understood. Suffering pulled the strings tight, indulgence made them sag. He discovered the madhyama marga, the middle path. He never starved again.
Suffering is a sign of laziness, an easy slide into depression. There are always other choices, if we are bold. Two men were sentenced to die. The first suffered his fate silently. The second said, "Your majesty, give me a year. I'll make your horse fly." The king acceded. Later when quizzed about his promise, he answered, "Who knows? A year is a long time. In a year, the king may die, or the horse may die. Why, in a year, the horse may even learn to fly!"
Suffering is an essentially enjoyable, attention-seeking activity. The Master was taking a night train. As he glided into sleep, he heard a weak voice from the berth below, raised in a wail, "Oh! How thirsty I am!" Moved by the old woman's plight, he got her a glass of water. Having settled her in comfortably, he was finally drifting into blissful slumber, when a lament shattered the peace. "Oh! How thirsty I was!"
--- Chandrika
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