6.5.24 - Making more memories

O Hare's in Newcastle

The best fish and chips I have had in ages

I have grown to love Newcastle. There is something about the place which brings back such great memories.

But also it has really thrived. I just love the place.

Yesterday, after talking to Oisin, I began to think more about suffering and the nature of suffering. About ten years ago I pondered deeply why we suffered. I wondered why were we given this capacity to suffer. And here is what I have come up with.

We are born through suffering. The mother suffers and the baby suffers. Being squished through the birth canal or taken out through C-section is not a party on any level. We are literally brought suffering into this world. And quite often most religion stops there. Buddhism's solution is to eradicate suffering. Well first the explain it by saying you have done something terrible in your previous life and now you are suffering the consequences. To get rid of suffering you can live the 8-fold path. The right this and right that. I can get onboard with the right this and that, but truth be told, it really doesn't help with the suffering. In fact living the right this and that often brings more suffering. The alleviation of the suffering in that process is the knowledge that you are maybe building up good karma.

Traditional Christian doctrine talks about sin - the failure to be your best self and then you spend a lot of time atoning for not being the best self. There is panoply of suggestions from tithes to confession to whatever... still though suffering isn't seen as a good thing. Islam says we surrender to the ineffable mind of God. In God We Trust, ironically for Americans it would seem. And there are the five pillars. Then Hinduism says like Buddhism, karma - and also just stay in your lane. 

Artists come quite close to the solution which is, make something beautiful from suffering, like the oyster. But it is not QUITE the oyster. This hints at the nature of suffering and the role it plays in human existence.

Life is suffering, is the first noble truth. I think we can modify that by saying that some of life is suffering. Suffering exists.

We can go with that.

Suffering does exist.

I understand suffering now - without being arrogant because I REALLY REALLY do not want to be tested by suffering - but when we undergo suffering, we are able to empathise. It is because of suffering that we are not psychopaths. If we process it correctly. Suffering is then a double-edged sword, because, as in the case of the Zionists, they then use it to brow beat others. This is the wrong application of suffering. 

Suffering also transforms. But it must be true suffering. Not flagellation or self starvation. It is undeserved suffering. 

I will never understand the suffering of children though. When I see the children suffer in Gaza. I cannot understand how the rest of the world can stand by, how American politicians can stand there and still side with the Israelis. Is money that important to you? How despicable and impoverished must your soul be to do this?