Suffering - Reject it, or Embrace it?

दुक्ख, 苦, 고, སྡུག་བསྔལ།, ταλαιπωρία, suffero, sofferenza, suffer... etc...

ARRGGHHHH!!!!!

Buddha talked about it, Jesus experienced it, Lao Tzu wrote about it, Mother Teresa surrounded herself with it...  so it must be important, right?  What I find incredibly interesting about suffering is that it can mean so many different things to so many different people.  And I suppose it always has.  Just the word itself is incredibly ambiguous.  For example, Latin is one of those languages that tries to simplify things.  What I mean is, in the Latin language you find a lot of meaning condensed into one word.  But the concept of suffering doesn't fit this mold.  There are many words to represent different aspects of suffering within Latin... such as...

• - adlido -lidere -lisi -lisum [to strike against ,dash against]; pass. adlidi, [to suffer damage].
• - calamitosus -a -um act. , [causing loss, destructive]; pass., [suffering loss, miserable]. Adv. calamitose, [disastrously].
• - condolesco -dolescere -dolui [to suffer severely , feel much pain].
• - deminuo -minuere -minui -minutum [to take away from , diminish, lessen]; 'capite se deminuere', [to suffer a loss of civil rights].
• - doleo dolere dolui [to suffer pain] , physical or mental, [to be pained, to grieve]; of things, [to cause pain]. Hence partic. dolens, [painful];adv. dolenter,[painfully, sorrowfully].
• - perpessio -onis f. [suffering , endurance].
• - suffero sufferre [to hold up , support; to endure, suffer].
• - torminosus -a -um [suffering from colic]. 

• ... AND MORE!

But of course, some of the biggest variance shows up within religious understanding.  In Buddhism, there is a concept known as "Dukkha" (दुक्ख), which is basically the very foundation of the 4 Noble Truths, and therefore the 8 Fold Path.  And even perhaps Buddhism in general, but I won't go that far because I feel it oversimplifies an EXTREMELY complex religious tradition that's over 2500 years old.  I'd never be that brash.
Anyway, the 4 Noble Truths are as follows...

1. 1. "This is the noble truth of dukkha: birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, illness is dukkha, death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are dukkha; union with what is displeasing is dukkha; separation from what is pleasing is dukkha; not to get what one wants is dukkha; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are dukkha."
2. 2. "This is the noble truth of the origin of dukkha: it is this craving which leads to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, craving for extermination."
3. 3. "This is the noble truth of the cessation of dukkha: it is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, nonreliance on it."
4. 4. "This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of dukkha: it is the Noble Eightfold Path; that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration."

Notice your thought, accept it, drop it.

Needless to say, the concept of Suffering is a negative thing in Buddhism.  It is something that needs to be ceased, to be awakened from, and is the absolute hindrance to enlightenment.  The 8 Fold Path is set down as a guide, a path, to rid one's self of suffering... but it doesn't end there.  The different Buddhist traditions have other practices and rituals for this very purpose as well.  Such as Zen (禪).  Zen meditation is designed in a way that brings one face to face with their attachments, desires, etc... and gives the practitioner the tools and hopefully the ability to drop those very attachments and desires.

To be honest, this is incredibly wise.  As any parent can attest to the fact that when you take something away from a child that they are attached too... inner torment ensues and a temper tantrum erupts.  And despite our intense repugnance towards our kid's suffering, we all know that taking it away is good for them, it teaches them independence, it teaches them about loss, about contentment, fulfillment, etc...  But I wonder if we ever really learn this, truly, or do we just better at concealing our inner torment and temper tantrums?  I know that when things don't go my way, I get disturbed psychologically.  If I have a busy day, and my schedule gets interrrupted by something, I don't like it... not one bit.  We have to calm ourselves down, remind ourselves that "it's going to be alright".  If we were enlightened and free of Dukkha like Buddha, there would be no need to calm ourselves down because we wouldn't get upset to begin with.  But alas... we're all stuck in the constant wheel of suffering.

Complete Surrender

But can suffering be a good thing too?  Well... let's look at suffering from a Christian standpoint.  A common theme throughout Christian life is that of "Humility".  It's an aspect within Abrahamic traditions that overshadows pretty much everything else, and perhaps is the very foundation of the God/Human relationship discussed within it's theology.  Whether you're talking about worship, prayer, contemplation, mystical experiences, scriptural study, eucharistic adoration, religious devotion, intercession, etc...  they all boil down to being humble acts (or at least they should).

Of course the biggest examples of suffering as a humble act is the story of Jesus.  The story is that God in the greatest acts of love, decided to become a feeble, fragile, imperfect animal (homo sapiens sapiens) so that his fellow feeble animals could learn and become saved from their own vices.  To help you better understand this concept, imagine if Mitt Romney (who's net worth is roughly $200 Million) decided to sell everything he has, give it all to the poor, move into a 3 bedroom apartment with his wife and 5 kids, work a minimum wage job, and get food stamps... and that was how he'd choose to live out his presidency.

Do you think he'd do it?  No... freakin'... way!!!  Why?  Because he's just like the rest of us, his attachment to "stuff" hinders his humility, and he just happens to have A LOT of stuff.  (Well... that and it would be pretty stupid of him financially speaking, and since he's a crumby politician and not a monk, I can't expect him to make such a moral decision.  And that goes for any politician, so don't get on my case for singling out Romney... I don't have room to use every politician as an analogy)

OUCH!!!

But God's humility doesn't end there... not only did he step down to our measly little level on this tiny speck of dust called Earth, but his human form had to endure some of the most agonizing suffering imaginable.  He was whipped, flogged, thorned, crucified, and speared in the heart.  Talk about suffering.  And as the story goes, this was a good thing.  Not necessarily because it was required (rising from the dead only works if you're dead first), but because it was a reminder of what true humility is... that of complete trust in God's will.  Any reasonable person would desire nothing more than to save their own life, to rid themselves of said suffering... but if the suffering is redemptive then the suffering itself becomes the release.  Christs suffering is what ended his suffering... and it is in suffering that we come to know God (Tao, the Force, the Great Spirit, whatever you want to call it).

This idea was embraced in the Catholic Church in many ways, one being the practice of mortification, which would include self flagellation, wearing of hair shirts,and  intense fasting and abstinence...  This was voluntary suffering for the sake of redemption, either for themselves or for others. 

The Rev. Michael Geisler, a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature in St. Louis, wrote two articles explaining the theological purpose behind corporal mortification. "Self-denial helps a person overcome both psychological and physical weakness, gives him energy, helps him grow in virtue and ultimately leads to salvation. It conquers the insidious demons of softness, pessimism and lukewarm faith that dominate the lives of so many today"  

... 

Some theologians explain that the redemptive value of pain makes pain lovable in its effects, even though by itself it is not. Pain is temporal and limited, thus to undergo it is worthwhile to gain the real benefits. For those with this viewpoint, pain is seen as a means to an end. Thus, a modern Catholic saint, Josemaria Escriva said, while consoling a dying woman who was suffering in a hospital, "Blessed be pain! Glorified be pain! Sanctified be pain!"

St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Another compelling example of redemptive suffering is in Mystical Stigmata.  The first well known stigmatist was St. Francis of Assisi (although it can be argued that it was Paul, I won't get into that here).  Wanting to live so much in the image of Christ, he was granted the chance to share in his redemptive suffering by physically bearing the "Marks of Christ".  Francis' stigmata was different than you'd think.  He had growths on the hands and feet that actually looked like bent nails protruding from his skin.  This made walking impossible, not just because of the intense pain he was in all the time, but the nails protruding out from his soles meant he couldn't stand with his feet flat.  This is a bit different from the popular case of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, a Franciscan (Capuchin) friar from Italy in the 20th century who's stigmata was actual wounds, literal holes in his hands and feet that bled continuously.  It's Pio's stigmata that we are most familiar with, but there is also another kind... invisible stigmata.  This stigmata is one of pain only, pain without any visible mark, wound, growth, etc...  Just the suffering.  But just like all of the other forms of suffering, it is only positive in nature if it grows from humility and is redemptive in nature.

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At first glance, these two approaches to suffering may seem at odds;  but I argue that they are not.  And this is why...

Dukkha in Buddhism is better translated as "never being fulfilled".  The reason one suffers is due to the attachment to the EGO.  Buddha talks about the concept of Anatman (No Self), which is basically a serious approach to selflessness.  Dukkha is ceased with true humility, and absolute selflessness.  The 8 Fold Path guides us in this way.  It points us to a complete dependency, and utter connection with the rest of existence. It illuminates a perspective that cements the desire for compassion and charity in the reality of "what I do to another (human or not) I do to myself".

Suffering in Christianity is a surrendering of one's self, totally, to God's will.  It is a rejection of the EGO, and a detachment from this "material world, and possessions" (with one's body being a possession).  So in essence, suffering is the path to God, but only if the suffering is done humbly, with grace, and redemption it's priority.  For Christ said that his yoke is easy, and his burden light... but that doesn't mean that we should take it easy, sit back and wait, it means that no matter what you do (even if that includes experiencing physical stigmata), if you do it for the glory of God and not yourself, it will be a WONDERFUL experience.


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Dukkha : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukkha
4 Noble Truths : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_Noble_Truths
Mortification of the Flesh : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortification_of_the_flesh