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The Pain of Others

  • Posted: Monday, March 08, 2010
  • 348 words
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Question:

I was told recently of a man with a terrible debilitating disease. It was a reminder of a great lack of understanding in me. My first impression is a terrible sense of injustice; the only conclusion to be reached that such a creator of this limited human being must be an evil god. Realizing that my reactions and self in that moment are born from imagination, something incapable of understanding the situation, I try my best to let go and understand I don't know. I can see the mirror of myself (ideas about happiness, values, false conclusions) in this moment; however, the question still lingers: how could a person be born limited, even physically? You speak frequently about balance, the universe being a constant exchange while still maintaining it. Clearly balance makes sense to me on a conceptual level, this story being the exception. A human life (depending on the definition) debilitated and on a slow painful road to death, subjected to a balance game? Such a world can't be the one we live in. (From student correspondence)

Answer:

Seeing the pain in others, the suffering of this dark and debilitated world of ours, can awaken one of two impressions in a human being; you have already "tasted" some of the first (and usual ones)... a sense of resentment-tinged confusion about what kind of God allows for such darkness. But the other, and (ultimately) transformative impression possible in that same moment (and attested to by more individual cases than can be listed) is this: a sense of compassion, of realizing the inherent suffering involved in the mortal experience... so that one -- from his or her awakening conscience (produced by that very encounter) -- is moved in a very real way to want to do two things at once: lessen the suffering of all involved, and... to cease being a part of anything that might be the cause of the same. Seen aright, all things serve the greater Good... all forms of darkness exist as they do to glorify the Light. Hopefully you can see this as being true.

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