The problem of pain and suffering has baffled humankind from the very beginning. In searching for an answer, we have often confused the problem of pain with the problem of suffering. The two are not necessarily identical. Pain is a sensation whose intensity can be measured. It is nature’s way of telling us that we are diseased. This is a pain that we must learn to welcome as an awareness of a dysfunction. They are warning signs that all is not well with us. Those who have a low threshold of pain need to have more care and attention in this regard.
To minimise the discomfort we experience is one thing; to become preoccupied with the removal of pain without considering what it is telling us means we are in danger of taking to the highway with all signposts and warning signs removed. Pain is a useful internal defence mechanism.
There is a kind of pain, however, that is the result of violence inflicted on us from outside. An injury or accident is always unfortunate. But when violence inflicted is intentional, it is symptomatic of a desire to control, to bring into submission the person of the other. It is often hoped that by destroying the body, one can destroy the spirit as well. Then there is the loss of a loved one, scars of abuse in manifold forms, the malignity we are subjected to, disappointments, shattered dreams that are part of our human condition, a sort of violence that is internal. It is at this point that pain and suffering intersect. Understanding the significance of this intersection is important.
While pain is a product of consciousness, suffering is a by-product of self-consciousness. Our subconscious is neutral, not assigning either positive or negative value to our experiences. It is our self-conscious ego that will determine whether or not this pain is transformed into suffering that is either positive or negative.
The Cross as a symbol is, by its very nature, an intersection, an intersection between pain and suffering. The commemoration of Easter is meant to revisit and restore the meaning of suffering to its original context. From the Latin ‘patior’, it is a passive verb but with an active meaning. It is better translated as ‘let it be done’. To suffer as Jesus did means recognising in awareness the presence of the ‘Ego’ at this intersection for the illusion that it is. This is his death on the cross that becomes the gateway to life . With no ego, there is no victim. The Cross has always been the essential symbol of Christianity; the crucified Christ, perhaps, its most loved caricature.
When the body of Jesus was taken down and buried in a tomb, the cross on which he was crucified still stood erect and remained so even on that first Easter morn. It is a silent testimony to the fact that the Risen Christ must coexist with the Cross. Jesus calls his disciples to take up their cross, shorn of ego, and, in so doing, transform the experience of pain through suffering in its positive sense. Without it, we will continue to remain in pain, suffer negatively, and inflict pain on others, since pain not transformed is pain transmitted.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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