What is human suffering? How does humanity understand/cope with human suffering? How do you reconcile suffering?

Suffering is an obstacle that everyone has to confront at all times in their life. Most of time, suffering is painful. However, if people consider it as a chance for learning, they can gain a broader appreciation of life and success. They will grow one step further in the process of overcoming and stepping out from the disincentive. However, confronting suffering is not necessarily drawing the beneficial consequences: sometimes, suffering seems ultimately pointless. It may ruin people devastatingly and even lead them to the dehumanization by drawing out their negative hidden traits. A Long Way Gone--a book of Ishmael’s dreadful memories of being a boy soldier and the atrocious truth of the war--and Othello--a tragedy of jealousy, vengeance, and love--indicate those two

Why do we suffer? Humans have spent years searching for meaning in the grievous events that happen in life. Some find comfort through religions that give reason to tragedy and teach that suffering is not always eternal. Others just accept that this is the way the world is and then do their best to adapt to that reality. Religions and philosophies, like Buddhism and stoicism, may try to teach its followers how to end their pain, because no one likes hurting. However, suffering is not necessarily a bad thing. It is painful, but suffering can bring new levels of meaning and appreciation to happiness. Pain is inevitable for anyone who cares about the people or things in his/her life. But if we were to eliminate suffering then life would become meaningless, because real joy is not possible without the risk of pain, and those who find contentment after enduring some tribulations appreciate their joy much more.

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 up in different printed sources, as well as in my personal life.

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 is part of the human condition in which one undergoes pain, distress or hardships. When most people suffer from any sort of distress, they experience terrible agony. Depression, at times, is their end result. However, others attempt to escape suffering and become stronger individuals. They begin discovering inner strengths, which allows them to get past suffering rather than becoming weaker. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano and A Narrative of the Captivity by Mary Rowlandson are both narratives written by two individuals in which they are faced with the challenge of overcoming obstacles that refrain them from growing stronger and detaining from the affliction they are met with. These obstacles include of distress, struggles and difficulties.

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.

We all have been in a bad situation yet very few of us would go as far as to label themselves as suffering. To suffer is to experience or be subjected to something bad or unpleasant. In the cases of Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano they both had to endure watching those near them grasped by the cold hands of death. Unlike Equiano, Mary was subjected to a form of suffering that created conflicts within herself concerning her predicament and her god. Equiano on the other hand was placed in isolation with those around him choosing to commit suicide,thus leading him to the edge of depression.

Everyone goes through suffering at some point in their lives, but many of them never really understand why a good, loving God allows them to go through this pain. Sometimes, it is even hard for them to trust God in their lives when they are going through suffering. They start to question God because if He is such a good and loving God, why would He not just take away their suffering. What most of them don't realize, though, is that God never actually wanted people to go through suffering. It was actually the fault of mankind that there is suffering because they sinned and turned away from God. Although it is not God who causes suffering, He still uses it for good. Many times, God uses it to draw people closer to Him because if they are going through pain, they are very likely to turn to Him. He also teaches lessons to those who suffer and shows who He wants them to be. God is at work in many lives transforming suffering into something great even if it does not seem good at the time. Although humans view suffering as horrible, God has a plan for the future.

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

As human beings everyone suffers but we all suffer differently. Some suffer emotionally, some suffer physically, some suffer mentally. And through suffering and pain we gain different experiences, we either overcome pain and sorrows or we break down waste our lives. Edwidge Danticat present the theme of suffering in each of her stories. In all the stories the characters have to go through pain, but they all over come it in different ways. This is true in real life too. in the children of the sea that characters suffer but the outcome is that, in 1937 the outcome is inner peace, and My outcome is discovering myself.

“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

God created the world, a place free from suffering and pain where humankind could live in peace and harmony,however when man chose the way of Satan by eating the forbidden fruit, this was the beginning of sin in the world. God makes it clear to Adam and Eve the consequences of sinning, and from this moment on suffering was declared. Since dying on the cross, through the letter of St Paul to the Colossians, Christ expects us to bind our sufferings with his. As a result of sin, God allows us to suffer because he loves us and wants us to have free will and the choice whether to love/not love. With this freedom, mankind has broken laws which result in pain and suffering which act as an early warning system when we exercise wrong decisions. Catholics believe that suffering is a test of faith and this is exampled in the book of Job where God lets good people suffer: Job loosing everything he owned, the death of his childer etc. Job examples the reaction to our own suffering. Instead of asking why, the Church teaches us to endure through our suffering and remember that God loves us and no matter the situation will lead us back home. In Pope John Paul’s apostolic

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

Two central themes to understanding the human condition are suffering and morality. Humans contrive morality to be a set of values deemed right or wrong in a society, and are often defined by institutions. These guidelines shape the way people live and how they react to life’s circumstances. Suffering is one emotion crucial to the understanding of existence. In a time of pain, an individual often seeks direction from a higher power, like the church. Institutions such as religion are a way of expressing morality and a means to cope with suffering, a crucial understanding of the human condition.

Pamela Cooper-White makes an interesting claim of how people suffer and how they should recover from their pain. White claims that suffering is the “meaning that we make or attempt to make our pain.” Then for someone to fully heal, “we must make meaning in relation to our pain.” It is not an easy task to heal from pain and suffering and it takes time to heal your wounds. Sadly, some people do not recover from their wounds, and digress from their lives and society because they cannot deal with the pain. Some people do not have a form of support or no one in their lives to help them cope with their pain. Further, White claims, “we need a witness in our lives to” become aware of our experience. Without this relationship, we will never fix ourselves