Okay, why would we 'suffer' the circumstances?

Question

It is clear to me, that this is an emotion that we use for the affect of building up strength and tolerance in ourselves.

But exactly why is that? Could you see, moving yourself through tremendous difficulty without 'suffering' them? Seeing as how emotion is actually 'injected' into our experience and not a part of experience itself. People prove this all the time by not handling circumstances the same, feeling different about the very same thing, etc, etc. So, we don't treat equally the medium of suffering. To 'suffer' is choice, and not a condition of our world.

What WOULD that be like?

Could you see yourself without 'suffering it?

Pain and suffering are not the same, if you think about it. Pain is an immediate indicator. Suffering, an extension...

Okay, I see that I didn't need to add anything further in my edits. You people blasted the explanation to bits as always. And I am once again Dancing in the Cosmos in celebration of
((((((((freeing it up))))))))))))))

((((((GAZ)))))))))))) thank-you ....

Answer 1

Well, there are so many great answers, so I won't suffer a lot of repetition.

I'll just say this. It seems to me that we are all born into this world without suffering and from that moment on we learn to suffer through our environment, our ego, other beings. Then we grow up a little and and discover that we suffer. Then later on that suffering is manageable, and then hopefully with a lot of work we find out that our true, non-suffering and fully aware self has been there all along just waiting to be re-uncovered.

So, in conclusion ladies and gentleman, I hereby propose that 'suffering' is not natural, and is therefore extinguishable.

May all beings cease to suffer.

Answer 2

Suffering is not necessary. It is how we choose to perceive the circumstances that are a part of our lives. For example, we can choose to see something as a problem and therefore suffer with it, or we can see the very same thing as an opportunity for growth and learn from it.
We can see the beauty in every moment if we so choose. I remember a friend advising me when my mother died to embrace my grief. I did that and the suffering I had experienced with her death disappeared. The suffering had come from wishing something was other than what it actually was.

Answer 3

It is a choice. All emotional perspectives are choices. Some move through us unbidden, and must be fully felt to be addressed - but even then, the perspective that this movement is a gift, however painful or stressful it may currently be -
and in that recognition, there is no suffering - suffering to me denotes hopelessness, and potential for loss.

If, as a spiritualist of any path, if one is able to gain wisdom, embrace a greater truth of self from any circumstance, then there is no loss, only transmutation.

namaste, sister

edit; the thing with emotion - it is used as fuel for the act of creation. It moves our lives along, on this plane. But, the emotions can be refined. The fuel can shift from density (struggle, suffering, lack, fear) to the more subtle expressions of inner truth, perceiving beauty, giving compassion, unconditional love.....to be present in that, suddenly there are no more questions, only clear sighted sureness....

Answer 4

To "suffer" is as much a part of the human experience as any other.

While we DO have a choice (sort of) ... we are not truly human if we do not suffer, love, hate, laugh, cry, and share all this with each other.

To miss out on some of this would be to be less than human.

Now, suffering (like so many things) is a subjective perception of our life and circumstance. While we do need to feel it from time to time, part of feeling it is learning how to DEAL with it for the next time 'suffering' occurs.

Answer 5

Nice thought... the point is that some circumstances do hurt and cause pain, not always of our choosing. Simply the way life is, a condition of this world. Things like a death, a love that is lost, recovery from injury, etc. They do not allow a choice of how our reactions and emotions respond. Some things are not always under our control.

Answer 6

I believe suffering helps you appreciate life more. How can you truly enjoy being happy and content unless you have suffered a little bit. I know I have gone through periods of depression and I did not take feeling normal for granted afterward. Once that fog lifted I was jumping around like a kid. I wouldn't have felt that good had I not suffered a bit.

Answer 7

Oh woman you make me think, working on this very thang!
Get back to ya on this one....
It 'seams' to come down to personalities acting from ego, (self,) or Spirit, (selflessness.) Here is where understanding the 'function' of Spirit is crucial and how to have the 'sense' to act from Love, selflessly, respecting all free will dignity. The ego believes that all functions belong to it. This is more than mere confusion. It is a paticularly dangerous combination of grandiosity and confusion that makes the ego likely to attack anyone and anything for no reason at all. Ego is unpredictable in its responses, because it has no idea of what it perceives. You might ask yourself, regardless of how you may account for the reaction, whether its unpredictability places the ego in a sound position as your guide. It seems the ego's time is "borrowed" from your ecstatic eternity. To act from courage, and love, as does Spirit which is shared, would be to come to your senses and how can that be fearful?
What can be fearful but fantasy, and who turns to fantasy unless he despairs of finding satisfaction in reality? Yet it is certain you will never find satifaction in fantasy, so your only hope is to change your mind about reality. To 'suffer' the circumstnces means we believe we are a victim. Only we can change our perspective, and stop fearing reality. Only we can stop blaming others for the response ability we choose to others. This 'injection' of emotion into our experience is formed by what we absorbed from childhood as the little sponges that we are. If not undone, clered out, cleaned up, and let go of, the blame just keeps on coming and going, back and forth. I agree bodhidave, suffering does come from our incomplete appreciation of the miracle of Life, and yes people do treat the medium of suffering differently.. Was your suffering worse than mine? Is that what gives people the edge? Equality of free will dignity........once understood, can eliminate blame completely. Wouldn't that be sweet, a bunch of responsible, happy people running around enjoying themselves?

Answer 8

As Boddhidave said, you speak of the fundamental insight of Buddhism.
There are two 'aims' in Buddhism. Nirvana, where you're all paid up, suffering done and away. And the Boddhisattva ideal, where you keep coming back into the world to help those still 'suffering'.

EDIT,
Any Buddhist purists out there - I know that's maybe a tad simplistic.

Answer 9

It's always ok to run naked in a hurricane. I mean, you don't have to dress up or anything. In fact, why wait for a hurricane, just run around naked all the time.

Answer 10

Your point is precisely the core insight of the Buddha under the bodhi tree:

Pain is a part of life, suffering on the other hand is "optional."

The suffering comes from our incomplete appreciation of the fact that any moment whatsoever is an unfathomable miracle in its mere occurrence. Pain, too, is that miracle.

Nirvana is the extinction of all the egoically-motivated interruptions, all the incompletely appreciative impositions, our minds place between us and the Miracle.
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