What do you think of suffering as an intellectual and a spiritual experience?

Question

"During the last few months I have, after terrible difficulties and struggles, been able to comprehend some of the lessons hidden in the heart of pain. Clergymen and people who use phrases without wisdom sometimes talk of suffering as a mystery. It is really a revelation. One discerns things one never discerned before. One approaches the whole of of history from a different standpoint." De Profundis, Oscar Wilde

Answer 1

Suffering is a sign of wrong thinking. If we correct our thinking in a particular case, that particular suffering will stop.

For example, if I really want to stay with a certain woman, but she ends the relationship, I will suffer as long as I desire that relationship. When I accept its end, though, my suffering will stop.

(This is an example of why the Buddha said that desire causes suffering.)

The end of suffering brings a new experience: understanding. We suffer because we don't understand, but understanding frees us from suffering--and then takes its place.

You know a lot about yourself if you understand what makes you suffer.

Answer 2

when u suffer, u learn, bec u think... u have to think of a way out, not just stay there to suffer.. so u grow intellectually...

when u suffer, u become humble, u seek a higher being to help u out of the suffering. and when ur finally out of the situation, u realize why u were given to suffer.. it is to let u grow spiritually.. to let u call on God, to let u know, u can be saved from ur suffering if u only ask...

Answer 3

Sometimes we are able to identify the learning, sometimes it is imbedded...what remains is that every experience we have, good or bad, is twisted into the cables of our brains, we use it all, whether we are aware of it or not. Thinkers may spend their lives trying to discern the lessons, Joe Average just lives them.

Answer 4

when god gives us problem it is to humble us not to tumble us