Posted by gary g (208.133.217.19) on November 06, 1999 at 01:36:57:
In Reply to: Pain Spirituality posted by Bill McC on November 05, 1999 at 01:58:44:
I follow the God Satan tale in a VERY VERY metaphorical sense
need to be careful about reading too much directed action into any of it
but however you get there, perhaps the answer is found in the HUGE difference
between enduring pain, and suffering because of it
to me - we must ENDURE this pain because we have little choice-
OK what then?
we need not SUFFER unless we chose to
I know that will anger many, but I truly believe it
enduring this pain means accepting it, recognizing it, and sorting out what we can and can't do about it
only if we add spiritual negatives such as self-pity, fear, envy (of those who don't share the same pain), etc do we invoke suffering
also - this tug of war between endurance and suffering ( another view of Bill's God/Satan thing)is neither a straight line, nor a permanent condition
we move between the two cluster by cluster, attack by attack, painful moment by moment
"some days are diamonds, some days are coal"
some just plain SUCK
but if we can be grateful for at least having each day, then we take a big step toward converting suffering to endurance