Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Suffering is a corrective to point out a lesson which by other means we have failed to grasp, and never can it be eradicated until that lesson is learnt.
It's a rare and precious thing to be close to suffering because our society - in many ways - tells us that suffering is wrong. If it's our own suffering, we try to hide it or isolate ourselves. If others are suffering, we're taught to put them away somewhere so we don't have to see it.
I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable.
When suffering happens, it forces us to confront life in a different way than we normally do.
Suffering is not good for the soul, unless it teaches you to stop suffering.
We create our own unhappiness. The purpose of suffering is to help us understand we are the ones who cause it.
Suffering is part of the divine idea.
Suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes us persons.
A lot of suffering is just getting rid of dross in yourself, and lingering and hanging in the darkness is often - I say this against myself - a failure of imagination, to imagine the door into the light.
Suffering is one of life's great teachers.
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