Every suffering inflicted carries with it a tremendous change that has to be adopted right away

Human beings are thought to be social and intelligent animals. If they are termed suffering animals, it would not be incorrect to say. While all other animals suffer due to a lack of resources or aches owing to having been physically wounded, human beings are only animals who create their own sufferings either by continually dwelling upon the past or by pondering over the needless worries of the future, despite being outwardly blessed with immense bounties. Suffering, apart from having been an integral of our lives, has been greatly misconstrued. We tend to be evasive when sufferings knock at our doors and we seek refuge. We are subconsciously convinced that if we do not take notice of our problems, they will cease to exist. That’s the reason we get to see people having their lives awfully devastated and they end up drawing conclusions like they were not at fault. They avoid their suffering perceiving it to be a burden upon them.
Human beings are commonly known as social and intelligent creatures. However, they are not exempt from suffering, which can be self-inflicted through persistent rumination about past events or unnecessary worries about the future, despite being surrounded by abundant blessings. While other animals may suffer due to the lack of resources or physical injuries, humans are unique in their ability to create their own suffering. Unfortunately, suffering is often misunderstood and evaded, as people subconsciously believe that ignoring problems will make them disappear. This leads to devastating consequences, and individuals may wrongly conclude that they are blameless for their suffering. In reality, avoiding suffering only increases its burden on individuals.
Let’s talk about how suffering instead of weakening you, can be used as a tool to strengthen you, and make you productive and a better human being. German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche believed that suffering is a way out of mediocrity. To know the value of suffering, one has to go through the most accomplished and successful lives of the people. A tree that is capable of growing to the heavens, must go through the harshest weather conditions as well. Likewise sufferings stealthily chip in for transforming people and bringing the best out of them. The poison that weakens the weak is strengthening the strong. Nietzsche was in the quest of why some people become successful and some don’t. He at last came to the conclusion that to endure suffering varies from person to person. The deeper the suffering is experienced, the more gifts and talents are unearthed. Deep suffering differs from the suffering experienced by ordinary people. It doesn’t bring about rancor and melancholy but hardens and awakens powerful force in people. Wisdom is attributed to suffering and pain. Suffering can be easily overcome not by escaping but by learning to suffer it deeply. Perception of most people is often based on illusion and bias which limits their understanding. They live in a self-created bubble and any attempt to go beyond it amounts to torment and suffering.
Deep suffering also draws new perspectives and expands the mental horizon. People who are inwardly most tormented, are able to deeply and quietly see through external circumstances. Normally, everything seems to be coated with lies and falsehood, deep suffering peels it off and the kernel comes to light. Pain has a tendency to do away with artifice and carve into one’s being what is real. We all swarm with such emotional tendencies, bad habits and unproductive beliefs that need to be overcome. However, when we find our lives going on pretty well, we scarcely attend to these things. Every suffering inflicted carries with it a tremendous change that has to be adopted right away. There is a creature residing in us, and if let loose, will cause damage on a larger scale. To tame it, suffering comes to the rescue if used to leverage one’s benefits and that is how we can become more productive and focused. We have to die a number of times before we actually begin to live a meaningful life and suffering plays a pivotal role in doing that. There are times when we need to let go of things that are in no way positively contributing to our lives in order to create room for things yet to come. It doesn’t bother you that you are currently suffering but in your thinking that you are suffering without any purpose. Human beings are the bravest animals who are used to suffering and due to this they find suffering inseparable and keep longing for it, provided they are convinced that within suffering lies a meaning to be discovered. Friedrich Nietzsche rightly said, “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. People suffer mostly from the meaninglessness of suffering not suffering itself.
Kahlil Gibran elegantly expressed it in one of his poems:
Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.
And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.
Much of your pain is self-chosen.
It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings, though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.

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Zahoor Farooq