Suffering

It occurs to me that suffering can make you all bitter & twisted or it can make you more compassionate.

I have certainly experienced BOTH extremes in this lifetime.

Any thoughts?

Suffering is a part of being human. The degree and type of it can help to determine one's emotional response. To an extent, it seems we can "choose", by altering our perceptions, how we react. The severity and nature of the suffering can definitely make that choice a lot more difficult.

To put it concisely, we suffer when we resist the noble and irrefutable truth of impermanence and death. We suffer, not because we are basically bad or deserve to be punished, but because of three tragic misunderstandings.

First, we expect that what is always changing should be graspable and predictable. We are born with a craving for resolution and security that governs our thoughts, words, and actions. We are like people in a boat that is falling apart, trying to hold on to the water. The dynamic, energetic, and natural flow of the universe is not acceptable to conventional mind. Our prejudices and addictions are patterns that arise from the fear of a fluid world. Because we mistakenly take what is always changing to be permanent, we suffer.

Second, we proceed as if we were separate from everything else, as if we were a fixed identity, when our true situation is egoless. We insist on being Someone, with a capital S. We get security from defining ourselves as worthless or worthy, superior or inferior. We waste precious time exaggerating or romanticizing or belittling ourselves with a complacent surety that yes, that's who we are. We mistake the openness of our being--the inherent wonder and surprise of each moment--for a solid, irrefutable self. Because of this misunderstanding, we suffer.

Third, we look for happiness in all the wrong places. The Buddha called this habit "mistaking suffering for happiness," like a moth flying into the flame. As we know, moths are not the only ones who will destroy themselves in order to find temporary relief. In terms of how we seek happiness, we are all like the alcoholic who drinks to stop the depression that escalates with every drink, or the junkie who shoots up in order to get relief from the suffering that increases with every fix.

A friend who is always on a diet pointed out that this teaching would be easier to follow if our addictions didn't offer temporary relief. Because we experience short-lived satisfaction from them, we keep getting hooked. In repeating our quest for instant gratification, pursuing addictions of all kinds--some seemingly benign, some obviously lethal--we continue to reinforce old patters of suffering.

Pema Chödrön
The Places That Scare You

Geoff-Allen said:

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Maybe someday mankind will see that lives are more important than money. On that day, we all will have taken a giant step toward ending suffering. We can help end it now, by actively supporting efforts to end hunger, homelessness, and lack of access to clean water, healthcare (vaccinations), and freedom. (Freedom, as in,from oppression, not democracy spread at the end of a gun.)

Lester Tryon said:

Maybe someday mankind will see that lives are more important than money. On that day, we all will have taken a giant step toward ending suffering. We can help end it now, by actively supporting efforts to end hunger, homelessness, and lack of access to clean water, healthcare (vaccinations), and freedom. (Freedom, as in,from oppression, not democracy spread at the end of a gun.)

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Yes - all the money spent on the military would easily feed the hungry ... maybe some day ... here's hoping!

I think Tolle is referring to the emotional suffering that our massive egos cause us ... all kinds of "dramas".

Thanks for sharing!

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Cheers

Lester Tryon said:

Maybe someday mankind will see that lives are more important than money. On that day, we all will have taken a giant step toward ending suffering. We can help end it now, by actively supporting efforts to end hunger, homelessness, and lack of access to clean water, healthcare (vaccinations), and freedom. (Freedom, as in,from oppression, not democracy spread at the end of a gun.)

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I find there are many today taking a step toward ending suffering by taking up medical causes and environmental issues, etc., but they are issues too BIG to solve.

I base my reasoning on the experience that a man named Job had, and a Bible book is named after Job.
A super human being challenged Job and 'us' at Job 2:4-5. Touch our ' flesh ' (loose physical health) and we would Not serve the God of heaven under adverse conditions. So, imperfect mankind can Not solve such problems.
Mankind's history has proven that man can Not direct his step, so we need someone greater to step in for us.
That greater someone is the one we are invited to come for us as mentioned at Revelation 22:20 and undo all the damage that has been done.

Geoff-Allen said:

Yes - all the money spent on the military would easily feed the hungry ... maybe some day ... here's hoping!
I think Tolle is referring to the emotional suffering that our massive egos cause us ... all kinds of "dramas".
Thanks for sharing!

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' here's hoping ' is a very good thing, and I find the Bible is all about hope in a big way.
According to what I read that ' some day ' is coming.
A prophet named Micah wrote at Micah 4:3-4 that the time is coming when each of us will have our own vine and fig tree ( meaning our own food ) because Jesus, as Prince of Peace, will usher in Peace on Earth among people of good will and relieve suffering as we can read at Psalms 72:8; Psalms 72:12-14.

URAVIP2ME said:

I find there are many today taking a step toward ending suffering by taking up medical causes and environmental issues, etc., but they are issues too BIG to solve.

I base my reasoning on the experience that a man named Job had, and a Bible book is named after Job.
A super human being challenged Job and 'us' at Job 2:4-5. Touch our ' flesh ' (loose physical health) and we would Not serve the God of heaven under adverse conditions. So, imperfect mankind can Not solve such problems.
Mankind's history has proven that man can Not direct his step, so we need someone greater to step in for us.
That greater someone is the one we are invited to come for us as mentioned at Revelation 22:20 and undo all the damage that has been done.

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I have no issues with people praying. Faith can work wonders. However, until there is some divine intervention, I believe that we, as a giant family, must do all we can to help one another and strive for that day.

chanting helps , this helped me when i was going thru internal stuff , tackling and fighting negativity.

Lester Tryon said:

I have no issues with people praying. Faith can work wonders. However, until there is some divine intervention, I believe that we, as a giant family, must do all we can to help one another and strive for that day.

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Amen to that brother!

Lester Tryon said:

I have no issues with people praying. Faith can work wonders. However, until there is some divine intervention, I believe that we, as a giant family, must do all we can to help one another and strive for that day.

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Your ^ above ^ words reminds me of a plaque that a friend had at the work table which read:
We are Not here to see through one another, but to see one another through.

In Jesus' illustration about the neighborly good Samaritan he was showing that we should widen out, or broaden out, in showing love to another on a one-on-one basis as we see need. Everyone one as a ' giant family ' is Not doing that today or we would be seeing one another through. Many are like the description as described at 2 Timothy 3:1-5,13 of people who have a selfish distorted form of love in these last days of badness on Earth before mankind will see divine involvement into mankind's affairs.

Physical aid and material aid are important, but what Jesus was stressing at Luke 4:43 that in the BIG picture it is only God's kingdom government in the hands of Christ Jesus that will bring an end to suffering on Earth, and that is why Jesus instructed his followers to let others know that. Know and spread that information on an international global scale that the good news message is the global solution to the coming great tribulation of Revelation 7:14.
Jesus wants us to now be 'fortified spiritually' before hand so that we will Not be overcome as per Luke 21:28.