Suffering & Its Purpose
The experience of pain and difficulty as spiritually significant. Suffering is understood variously as purification, a path to enlightenment, or a mystery pointing to divine providence.
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character.”
“Life contains suffering (dukkha); suffering arises from craving (samudaya); there is cessation of suffering (nirvana); the path leads to cessation.”
“My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
“Perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not.”
“The contact between the senses and sense objects creates feelings of heat and cold, pleasure and pain; these are transient and must be endured.”
“Through suffering, the soul is refined and purified, drawing closer to God's grace and understanding divine wisdom.”
“The ascetic must bear suffering without complaint, as it is the means of burning away karmic matter and approaching liberation.”