Don’t Waste Your Suffering

Don’t Waste Your Suffering

Reading the news on the ongoing ecological collapse and the denial of this reality by most world leaders is painful. Most of us had once thought that the suffering that would accompany “Business as Usual” was something we could avoid: sadly, most of us no longer think that. That hurts. That is pain. Playing with my grandson and realizing that it is probable that during his life the “normal” world as we know will no longer exist makes me feel so guilty that I am sometimes frozen. And yet…. I go on just playing with him and quite honestly enjoying the wondourful moments I have with him. Given this painful reality how can we respond in ways that keep us in an emotional space that is realistic about the risks ahead without giving into despair. More than that, how can we harness the power of this pain to allow the suffering that we experience to transform first us, then our friends, and then eventually our countries into living lives that will not bring ruin and destruction to both our human world and the rest of life that we share the Earth with?

A helpful first step is this key concept from Buddhism: Life will always bring pain but that suffering is your choice. When Buddhists say this they mean that getting stuck to your pain, remaining focused on your pain, always feeling sorry for yourself, thinking that life is out to get you – this “attachment” transforms pain into suffering which is even worse: but importantly that was your choice. We cannot be free from pain, but we can be free from suffering. That’s the basic core of Buddhism: one we recognize this how do stop attaching ourselves to pain and thus avoid suffering. That a main purpose in meditation: to not attach to what seems the important bad news of the day… because it too shall pass. Should we do something to reduce the pain? Of course! Should we do something to help people who are suffering? Of course! But we “win” even if we are not successful in having the desired outward result IF we can still enjoy Life and smile and laugh and make the best of the most rotten situation. And I would certainly say that the overwhelming evidence that we are making the world toxic for all life is one big rotten situation. But we never give up. We change. We become the person we never in our wildest dreams could imagine – and yet had hoped for. We don’t waste our pain. We don’t waste our suffering.

A related yet quite different idea from Christianity that suffering is sometimes a gift that can lead to growth and healing. Of course we don’t want pain – but its inevitable: the only trick in life is to try to find ways that stop the pain… but not at the risk of becoming an opioid addict.  Of course course we don’t want suffering – which is pain that never stops because we are stuck – and yet we seem to now be moving towards a “Hothouse Earth” which will in all probability result in the collapse of civilization as we know it – but of course Life will go on in some other form. This is captured in the title of today’s reflection: “Don’t Waste Your Suffering”. One helpful way to use this idea is to realize that even if you become a powerful Buddhist meditator – which by he way is a great idea – you will not always be successful, for perfection in any human endeavor is impossible. Thus you will be sometimes stuck in suffering. Sometimes that suffering can result in your growth and sometimes that growth can bring healing… sometimes.

But what about our Anthropocene Age which has just elected a world leader who said “Drill Baby Drill”? What about the recent headline that telling us that Five of Canada’s Big Six banks just quit the global climate alliance they had committed to? You and I will sometimes – and right now it looks that today is one of these times – be in situations which have no hope of redemption – there is no obvious growth and healing to come from our present or future suffering. And yet, after the asteroid wiped out the Dinosaurs – life came roaring back – better than ever. Even after the Permian Mass Extinction Life came roaring back – better than ever.

Does this mean we will come roaring back? I don’t know – but I do know that Life – whether human or non-human – is amazingly and irrationally effective at transforming itself into a new form – even a new species – that will live on. Life does not end [well, at least not until the Sun dies in a few billion years] but it does transform. Old ways and old forms die – but the evolve into new forms. My hope is that our pain, our suffering will transform us into something completely different that we are today. What that will be – I have no idea. Will that transformation by cultural? Physical? Psychological? I have no idea. But I do know, with complete certainty, that if I believe that we are doomed – we are actually doomed. I also know that if we believe [yes, its a dangerous word – but all good things are also dangerous] that pain and suffering have the chance of transforming us, of having us grow in ways that would not have been possible without the suffering and perhaps, just perhaps, we can not only heal ourselves and our very diseased culture but even the Earth that we have so abused.

So, let’s not waste our suffering. Let’s work hard. Let’s play hard. Let’s enjoy life to its fullest. Let’s live with others in ways that bring healing. Let’s play with our grand children and instead of focusing on how bad it could be let’s focus our thoughts and money and energy on how good his/her life can be.