In a 1946 novel set in South Africa, a Zulu pastor reflects on the poverty, hardships, and injustices endured by his people. “I have never thought that a Christian would be free of suffering. For our Lord suffered. And I come to believe that he suffered, not to save us from suffering, but to teach us how to bear suffering. For he knew that there is no life without suffering” (source 1, italics added).
Suffering is not a word many of us are comfortable with. It brings to mind the “patient enduring of pain, inconvenience, loss” and the “undergoing of punishment, affliction, etc.” (source 2). We tend to associate it with obituaries (“‘Till God called her home to suffer no more.”) news reports of disasters (“Two people suffer burns as fire guts home.”) or sporting events (“Royals suffer first injury casualty.“).
There is, however, the very intimate and personally-felt experience of suffering. According to the Buddha’s essential teachings, “birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering …”.
Zen teacher Norman Fischer explains the interconnection of compassion and suffering (source 3).
“Absolute compassion is the practice of resting in awareness itself, returning to the breath, returning to the present moment, returning to the bottom line feeling of simply being alive. Just that. Returning to the breath and feeling how your life is held in safety and love, in the wide space of endless awareness.
“Relative compassion, based on absolute compassion, is the practice of being willing to take in the suffering, to feel it, to be willing for your heart to be broken, to be willing to go out of your way to work on the behalf of others. To give of yourself, to practice kindness, to be interested in and moved by others, and to meet everyone, always taking into account the suffering we share as human beings. I feel like none of us have come to the end of these practices.”
Sources
1. Alan Paton. (1946). Cry, the beloved country, p. 261. Re-issued as paperback by Scribner in 1995.
2. Dictionary of Etymology
3. During a talk on Suffering and Gratitude, Spirit Rock Retreat Centre, January 28, 2015. Click here for a written transcript and audio file.
Peter, thank you for sharing the marvelous link between suffering and compassion. It is only in the arising of the latter that the former can find peace.
Metta,
Tess
Recent research on the effect of intensive meditation practice on the development of compassion towards self and others.