Is Suffering Optional?

Is Suffering Optional?

Is Suffering Optional?  Sirrrrrrs, my answer is a loud 'NO' because this is a GIVEN for us all.  BUT you might wonder WHY am I posing this as our thread today?  It is because some misguided souls could still be heard questioning [AS IN] really why do they need to go through the agonies of SUFFERINGS in life.  C'mon dude.  Sufferings, painful events, and even bad things do happen to us in life💵💴💷

Indeed, this is something we all go through life.  We are going to SUFFER, that's just inevitable [BUT please DON'T get me wrong, this is NOT to scare you].  It's just part of our human condition and it's just part of being alive.  Sometimes bad things happen to us, and we end up SUFFERING.  Even now, some of us may be in the hospital because of an illness.  Others may be heartbroken because of the end of a relationship.  OR we may be suffering severe depression because we HAVEN'T been able to find work for several years.  📗📙📘

We all have our own stories about SUFFERINGS and we all have SUFFERED.  So, HOW can we deal with SUFFERINGS?  Sadly, the most tempting and easiest option is to state that we can SUPPRESS them [oh really?].  And that's one key reason there is so much SUFFERING in the world because when we SUPPRESS our SUFFERING, it does NOT go away.  Instead, it just gets put aside for a little bit and then we need to SUPPRESS it more and more💧💧💧

Our common scenarios run true across countries and cultures.  WHEN we SUFFER, we often turn to substances OR sometimes to other people.  In other words, we turn to things outside of ourselves to try to TURN OFF the SUFFERING.  Problem is, we never learn our lessons hard enough.  We always seem to run to the SUPPRESS-ALL-FEELINGs option all the time.  SUFFERING occurs.  Instead of teeling, we tend to numb it,  BUT that DOESN'T work for very long so we have to keep numbing it❌❌❌

Unfortunately, there are infinite number of ways [a.k.a. ADDICTIONS] that we can turn to so we WON'T feel our feelings, from food to prescription medications, to relationships, to keeping super busy, and list goes on and on.  So, WHAT's our takeaway?  WHEN dealing with SUFFERING, we can feel the pain and it is challenging to us.  Taking as an example when our loved one dies, we do SUFFER as we feel the loss, and it is both sad and tragic, together with all the tears.  And sometimes even anger flows in as part of that loss.  However, WHAT happens is that FEELING or OWNING the pain helps us get better.  Our SUFFERING heals and then we move on.  So, is SUFFERING OPTIONAL?  NOT AT ALL, dude.  Everyone of us will go through that gauntlet but we can survive it albeit bruised and maybe, sometimes scathed❗❗❗