Thich Hahn Analysis

The theme of suffering will be talked about throughout this essay. Even though it isn’t the most pleasant topic to talk about, it is part of our lives. The dictionary defines suffering as “The state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship.” This essay will examine suffering and how it shows

Suffering is an Inescapable Part of Living What is "suffering"? Does it have any advantages? Suffering is an inescapable part of life. Whether it involves the minor bumps and bruises of daily living or major traumas such as terminal illness, death, or the breaking of a family, suffering touches all of our lives at one point or another. Helen Keller once said, "The world is full of suffering, but it is also full of people overcoming it". Though Helen Keller was not a philosopher, in this quote she tells us why the topic of suffering is extremely important in life. The fact that so many people face suffering everyday and question it's existence in their lives, is the reason that so many strive to make the best out of the times when they

pain . The modern perspective sees the concept of pain from a view that includes

suffering is present in the world, but also accept the fact that there is nothing we humans can

Pain is universal. In life, everyone will feel pain; it is inevitable and cruel. Physical or emotional, insignificant or severe, it is there. The pain continues mounting into an unbearable amount of suffering. Suffering that blots out everything of worth, such as family, love, aspirations, and optimism. Hopelessness seizes any will to endure. With no way to subside or control the pain, often one will go to extremes in order to be free of it. Many take their life, in order to escape the horror. Committing suicide is a traumatizing experience for any and all involved. Life is precious. The chance to live is only given once, and cannot be taken for granted. Preventing even a single life from ending early is imperative and obligatory

Suffering. All of us have encountered suffering and many of us wish we never would have to again; however, what many people do not see is that since we have suffering, we have happiness. One can not exist without the other. Without this feeling of suffering or unhappiness, we would not be able to understand happiness or even know it as a pleasant feeling, since we would never have experienced a life of unhappiness. Journalist David Brooks in “What Suffering Does” and Buddhist Monk Matthieu Ricard in “The Alchemy of Suffering” gave their own input upon the relationship between suffering and happiness. They seem to mention how every person endures suffering, but what is important is not the suffering itself, but the way a person changes or reacts to the suffering. While one may hate suffering, we have to understand that one can not be happy without having suffered. The characterization of emotional suffering as “rewarding” to people fails to account for individuals who have undergone the death of their spouse and have come out of it a changed person. In fact, in the 21st century, pervasive media advertising through television advances western cultural expectations of “perfection”, that in part advance suffering.

“Suffering” is a word which carries negative connotations, used to incite pity, empathy or fear. Why would it not? Is suffering not simply agony, defined justly by the Oxford Dictionary as “the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship” (“Suffering)? Yet, we accept suffering as part of life, a fundamental aspect that defines living. Nietzsche tells us that the very act of living is suffering itself, but to survive is to find value in that suffering. Yet, what sort of value can be attached to an idea so negative? Pico Iyer’s editorial in the New York Times explores the value of suffering, likening suffering to passion and “[p]assion with the plight of other’s makes for ‘compassion’” (________________).I began to think upon the cohesive

There are many differing ways that people suffer. Some effects can be superior and some can be inferior. In the quote by H. Richard Niebuhr, suffering can make you stronger, have more character, along with respect.

Encouraging Suffering is a book written by renowned Chinese writer Zhou Guoping. It is the same book that has kept me afloat in the merciless waters of the dark side of the ocean of life, and it has had a very strong influence on my perspective towards hardship.

Suffering is practically a guaranteed part of life; everyone experiences it in some way or another. It can accompany loses of close friends or family members, a heartbreak, or waves of powerful emotions. Everyone experiences suffering uniquely to themselves and the effects can be long- or short-term. Don Miguel Ruiz,

Suffering can come in several forms; it can include physical pain to emotional distress. The relationship between suffering and physical distress however, is often being neglected in today’s medical world.2 Patients suffer --They wince with pain. They tremble with fear. They lose sleep because of confusion, anxiety, and denial. And, as they suffer, they look to medicine for help. But medicine, increasingly, has not provided them with relief.2

Our experiences of suffering may also help us in our moral conduct as an experience of suffering serves to make us sympathetic to the trials of others. We learn to a) help the afflicted (through consolation and relief) and to B) not inflict harm on others, having experienced suffering ourselves. Furthermore, many spiritual seekers in the past have felt that suffering and spiritual progress are inexorably linked, pointing to St Teresa of Avila and St Francis of AssisiI as examples . I believe that if we can learn from our

Optimism, positivism, practicing faith and hope filled emotions have saved individuals from a lot of life threatening situations, and cause them to suffer less than an individual who engulfs themselves in hopelessness, despair and relinquish all attempts for looking for a healthy positive way. Pain does not only relate to physical

These stories show two different ways suffering can affect people, by leaving a scar on them and staying with them through all their life, or by inspiring them to look for the best in people and view the world in a different way.

Understanding Suffering The suffering of man is a very complicated matter that is most likely impossible to understand completely. It is a subject that people have grappled with since the dawn of recorded history. In fact, suffering is evident in every form of art man has created. Suffering is in our paintings, our poetry, our music, our plays, and in anything else that is conceivable. But still, we as a whole still struggle with the idea of suffering. It is my opinion that some individuals may grasp the notion of suffering more than others, but that no one person will ever fully understand suffering in every form. A person may only understand his or her own personal suffering, not suffering as a whole. It is the next step to then say