When I begin any deep philosophical discussion with my students, I like to start with the idea that all philosophy and, indeed, most religious and spiritual traditions, are rooted in a fundamental unease about the human condition.
Human beings are rarely satisfied with the way things are. We continually look for greater meanings and greater purposes for our seemingly small and insignificant existence. Just the fact that we are continually seeking answers reflects that we continually want something we do not have. This endless seeking reflects the human experience: always desiring something else, never simply being at peace.
The beginning of any genuine spiritual inquiry is practically the same as any scientific inquiry. What is real? What is truth? How did things come to be? How was the universe created? What happens after the universe ends?
Like a child continually asking “Why? Why? Why?”, these questions eventually enter into a more metaphysical territory. Why are we here? Why does the universe exist? Who or what is God?
Any comprehensive system of religion or philosophy will most likely attempt to answer these questions, and, in seeking to understand the universe, we also strive to understand our role in it. We seek to know what it means to be a good person and how we should live our lives.
On the path of considering God, the Universe, and humanity’s role in it, we eventually have to ask about the existence of another fundamental problem with the world: Why is there so much suffering in the world?
Unable or unwilling?
Even in today’s technological age, where human beings have focused on developing material comforts for millennia, there is still a lot of suffering. We still get sick, get old, and will eventually die. Poverty, hunger, malnutrition, injustice, and oppression continue to spread in all corners of the globe. Genocide didn’t end in the 20th century nor in the 21st.
There is pain all around us and inside of us. So, if we are to even envision an all-knowing, all-capable God, we have to ask ourselves some questions. What is God’s role in the face of enormous suffering? Is he/she/it unable to prevent suffering? Or just unwilling?
Often times, atheists use the presence of suffering as kind of a “gotcha” question for theists. “Well, if your God is so powerful and loving, then why do children get cancer and die?” It may be easy to explain that everything is “part of God’s plan,” and many eulogies for young people will express that God wanted them in heaven early, but these ideas do not negate that suffering happens. Wouldn’t a loving God want to alleviate it?
Last week, I wrote about the undeniable bliss that naturally arises upon spiritual awakening. By calming the turbulence of the mind and opening the heart, a shift in awareness occurs that does not desire to change anything about the world. The mind drops out of endless craving and aversion, realizing that everything is exactly the way it is supposed to be. Everything makes sense. Everything is all going according to plan. The psychologist William James called this the “unseen order,” where “our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto.”
But if everything is perfect, then why does suffering still exist?
What of suffering then?
When we look at suffering, however, there does not seem to be any unseen order to it at all. It seems like bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. If there is an unseen order, a guiding force, a harmony to all things, then what gives? What are we to make of the death, disease, violence, and hatred that we see in the world?
As I have explored this question, I have found it to be one of the most rewarding inquiries there is. My own personal search for truth and wisdom keeps bringing me back to suffering. Suffering is one of our greatest teachers, and we have so much to learn from it. In fact, I have found that there are only two teachers a person needs in life: love and suffering. I call these our great gurus because they will teach us more than any book, teacher, or experience. They even bring us to God. It was Richard Rohr who wrote, “There are two ways to God; one is through intense love, one is through intense suffering.”
So, why is there suffering in the world? While I encourage you to ask yourself this question and come up with your own reasons, I will just offer a few suggestions to get you started.
1. Suffering points out exactly where you are stuck
It was the great sage Sadhguru who observed that “pain is physical, suffering is inevitable.” That was his take on the old age: “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.” Both aphorisms indicate that suffering reflects our own resistance to what is. Suffering essentially occurs anytime anything is not what we wish it to be.
In this way, suffering is a sign-post pointing out exactly where we are stuck on the spiritual path. It points out where we are resisting the most and where we need to let go. Suffering, to someone on the path, is a gift. To an awakened being, all of life is grace, including suffering; all of life is a series of exercises for awakening, including suffering.
I believe this is what Mary Oliver was describing when she wrote, “Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.” In the moment, we may not like it, but, looking back on the challenging circumstance, we see just how much we grew from it.
2. Suffering is a call to action
Inside of ourselves, suffering acts as a signpost pointing to exactly where we need to go. But suffering in others is a call to action.
There is some debate in the spiritual world about what a person does once they become fully enlightened–fully free from the endless cycle of karma and reincarnation. As the legends go, some famous saints simply entered full samadhi and stayed that way in the lotus position until they died and their bodies decayed, as their consciousnesses was fully resting in bliss.
But that is a minority perspective, as most spiritual practitioners have understood that our personal liberation is wrapped up in a collective liberation. This is the path of the bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings who have put off entering paradise in order to help others attain enlightenment, as made evident in the Bodhisattva Prayer for Humanity:
May I be a guard for those who need protection
A guide for those on the path
A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood
May I be a lamp in the darkness
A resting place for the weary
A healing medicine for all who are sick
A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles
And for the boundless multitudes of living beings
May I bring sustenance and awakening
Enduring like the earth and sky
Until all beings are freed from sorrow
And all are awakened.
Notice that line near the end: until all beings are freed from sorrow. One’s work is not complete until everyone is free.
This brings us to the ultimate paradox: the paradox of suffering. An awakened being is free from their own suffering and still committed to alleviating it for all others.
These two seemingly contradictory realities point out the fundamental distinction that the spiritual path is personal. We become free of suffering through our own shift in awareness, but take action in the world to alleviate the suffering of others. The suffering of others demands action. Suffering is a call for our help.
3. Suffering awakens the heart of our compassion
Another way that suffering and darkness are actually gifts is that they awaken the heart of compassion within us. In this way, helping others is a gift, because it gives us the opportunity to be of service and to practice compassion.
The Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield wrote of the Tibetan Prayer, “Grant that I might have enough suffering to awaken in me the deepest possible compassion and wisdom.”
Even the anger, judgement, and hatred we receive from others can be used to awaken the heart of compassion. In the Bhagavad Gita, it is written, “If you want to see the brave, look at those who can forgive. If you want to see the heroic, look at those who can love in return for hatred.”
4. Suffering forces a transformation inside of us
Finally, circling back to our questions about why God allows suffering to happen, it is so that God can finally reveal himself to be on our side. Rabbi Harold Kushner even covers this in his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People:
The conventional explanation, that God sends us the burden because [God] knows that we are strong enough to handle it, has it all wrong. Fate, not God, sends us the problem. When we try to deal with it, we find out that we are not strong. We are weak; we get tired, we get angry, overwhelmed . . . But, when we reach the limits of our own strength and courage, something unexpected happens. We find reinforcement coming from a source outside of ourselves. And, in the knowledge that we are not alone, that God is on our side, we manage to go on. . .
Like Jacob in the Bible [Genesis 32], like every one of us at one time or another, you faced a scary situation, prayed for help, and found out that you were a lot stronger, and a lot better able to handle it, than you ever would have thought you were. In your desperation, you opened your heart in prayer, and what happened? You didn’t get a miracle to avert a tragedy. But you discovered people around you, and God beside you, and strength within you to help you survive the tragedy. I offer that as an example of a prayer being answered.
So, perhaps rather than asking “Why is there suffering in the world?”, we should ask “What is this suffering trying to teach me?” and “What action is this suffering asking me to take?” As we tune into the inner strength required to meet suffering in this life, we can also ask, “What internal shift is needed in me to face this current challenge?”
In this way, suffering is a gift that awakens our love and gives meaning to our lives–a guide on the best way to live.
