Is suffering a necessary part of human condition?

[lemex]

Originally Posted by FallingLeaves

you might want to try suffering while you do. Difficult, but eye-opening.

This may part of the lesson to. Had something similar in my journal. It is also about realizing and being mindful where what is manifested is no different even though the experience seems so different. Sometimes it is necessary to pull away from suffering.

[iamthat]

Thank you, Jyotir. Beautifully expressed as always.

Peace

[FallingLeaves]

Originally Posted by lemex

This may part of the lesson to. Had something similar in my journal. It is also about realizing and being mindful where what is manifested is no different even though the experience seems so different. Sometimes it is necessary to pull away from suffering.

yeah too much of any one thing gets you as lost as anything else I guess. On the other hand acting on THAT assumption is more of the same too... this thing we face is very devious...

[Starman]

Suffering only takes place in our mind; it is a reaction to pain or struggles, real or perceived. I have talked with military people who were prisoners of war, and they survived by letting their mind be free of what was happening to them.

Victor Frankl who established Existentialism as a philosophy, was held in a concentration camp during World War II, that was when he developed his thesis on "man's search for meaning." Anne Frank was someone else who remained optimistic while facing tremendous suffering during World War ii.

I began to notice children during the Vietnam War who lived in abject poverty and barely had food to eat, yet it amazed me how those children played with each other and often laughed while suffering and surrounded by suffering. I saw the same thing in the middle east during time of war. Yes, it effected them but they did not suffer too much over their suffering.

Some people are just more resilient than others. Suffering in my opinion is a mental choice; most suffering is similar to grieving. We grieve the loss of our comforts, loved ones, threats to ourselves or our security, etc. Some people grieve longer than others. There is no appropriate length or period of time, although I have found some very deep and profound lessons in my own suffering.

Most people do not learn unless they experience pain, and some still don't learn even with pain. The human ability to adapt is tremendous. There is no right or wrong in this. It is just what we identify with. Some people can tolerate pain more than others and all people do not suffer over the same thing. Suffering can be cathartic and it can be used as a tool to help us understand ourselves. Suffering has a tendency to push us below the surface into places where we would rather not be, or have avoided.

[Altair]

What this discussion boils down to is how one views the ''mind''. To me there is no separate mind. It is a collection of verbs ((memories, thoughts, awareness, reason)), not a noun. Have thousands of years of writing and philosophical speculation and people will turn verbs into nouns. It is attractive to do so for a practical purpose of communicating our views with one another. A noun is more likely to imply consensus, and will move a conversation forwards, but in doing so we bypass questioning ourselves.

We now know that when parts of the brain are damaged it will impact this ''mind'' accordingly and it shows us this ''mind'' does not exist in a vacuum. We can also lose memories and our awareness, while reasoning develops over time. Mind is part of the body just as suffering is part of pain. The distinctions between body and mind as well as pain and suffering are unnecessary. These distinctions and false dichotomies disappear when one views it as one organic system.

[God-Like]

I am is suffering compared to not .

I AM awareness however sweet is confined through I AM aware compared to not .

This is suffering compared to not .

Think of the absolute and then think of the individual .

The individual suffers because there is no longer the absolute .

To speak about mental and emotional and physical sufferings compared to not still reflects the individual and not the absolute, so no matter how happy and pain free you are, you are still suffering through I AM awareness ..


x daz x

[Starman]

Verbs and nouns aside, nothing is what we call it, but for the sake of discussion where words are the medium of communication; I am not my mind, nor am I my physical body or emotions. I am not my awareness, nor am I my memories or desires. What I am is beyond words and thoughts. At my core I have no identity.

All of that said, I am not my suffering. I can step back away from my suffering, and look at it in and objective way. As humans we experience multidimensional states of being, mental, emotional and physical, all of which are temporary. That which is permanent is often referred to as “spiritual.” Some might call it consciousness, energy, or use another word to describe it, but actually it is beyond words and concepts.

The mind frames things and puts them in a box, that is what constitutes a concept; a mental construct. Lots of people live in the mental boxes that are in their head. Suffering is a concept, a box in our mind. Lots of ancient writings do refer to “the all as mind,” but words have evolved since those times. Ancient times referred to God as “spirit” while today people say energy or consciousness. “Nothing in the universe is what we call it here on Earth.” Words are symbols and nothing more.

Peace

[Dominik90]

The purpose of suffering is to know what you want to experience and what you don't want anymore, it is like a sign of the future. Suffering in this sense is only suffering when we have the attitude towards suffering like that. Our perception and actions decided wether they are truly sufferings or not.