A Lifetime of Suffering, Gladly

It is said God created the universe in six days, resting on the seventh. Perhaps God avoided boredom on his day off by watching humans try to make plans..

The punchline: life never goes according to our plans and as a result, we invariably suffer, often severely. We may try to drown out our suffering with food, alcohol, drugs, porn, and work, but often to no avail.

The Greek Stoic philosophers of 2400 years ago who dealt with shipwrecks, imprisonments, and forced suicides certainly understood that life was suffering but nevertheless endeavored to lead a full and joyous life. We too might consider a similar approach as we encounter the sources of our own inevitable sufferings, whether they be illness, loneliness, injustice, grief, or failures, among the host of causes.

Viktor Frankel who knew something about suffering, having survived three years in a concentration camp, believed our goal in life should not be the search for happiness, but to extract meaning from life’s inevitable sufferings. Similarly, Herman Hesse’s book Siddhartha was about Budha’s search for enlightenment through suffering.

What got me thinking about all this was Jennifer Frey’s WSJ book review of Life Is Hard by Kieran Setiya. Specifically relevant to the subject was her opening paragraph:

Written in 523 while its author was in prison awaiting execution, Boethius’s “Consolation of Philosophy” is one of the most popular texts of medieval Europe. In this masterwork, Lady Philosophy (personifying wisdom) comes to Boethius as a physician promising to cure his sickness of mind. She redirects his attention away from his misfortunes and toward eternal truths about virtue, happiness and the meaning of suffering, ultimately leading him to the contemplation of God—wherein, Lady Philosophy argues, his true happiness consists.

In light of the above, a curious seeker is compelled to conclude that “We are born to suffer. But we can still live well, not in spite of our suffering but in full acknowledgment of it.”

Let us “joyfully participate in the sorrows of the world.”

— Sina.