Suffering

One of my favorite quotes is Edith Hamilton's translation of some lines from Agamemnon, the first play in Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy:

He who learns must suffer
And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget
Falls drop by drop upon the heart,
And in our own despite, against our will,
Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

I think this is profoundly true, but of course it raises a question. Why must we so often suffer in order to learn? What is it that makes suffering necessary?

An answer is suggested in Martin Lings' worthwhile book, Shakespeare's Window into the Soul (which, in its long publishing history since 1966, has also appeared under the titles Shakespeare in the Light of Sacred Art, The Secret of Shakespeare, and The Sacred Art of Shakespeare). Lings was an erudite British scholar specializing in religion and spirituality. In his book on Shakespeare he explores the mystical elements of the playwright's work, finding in the mature tragedies a symbolic reenactment of man's redemption from his imperfections (characterized in the Christian tradition as Original Sin).

He makes his case most clearly with regard to Measure for Measure. Lings writes:

At the beginning of the play Angelo appears to be by certain standards almost perfect, but as yet he is merely a human fragment....

But by the beginning of the last scene ... Angelo was no longer merely a human fragment: his soul was a chaos of warring virtue and vice, with vice momentarily in the ascendant, but it was at least a complete soul; and it is because the fallen soul in quest of perfection has first of all to be made complete by the addition of faults, which are only subsequently purified and transformed into virtues, that Mariana says: "They say best men are moulded out of faults."

This is a theme that Lings expands on at some length. His basic point is that, in the mystical tradition, it is required to confront the darker aspects of oneself - what Jung called the "shadow." Only by facing and transcending these elements of darkness, and then integrating them into one's whole personality, can a person be spiritually perfected.

Angelo, the proud moralist of Measure for Measure, must come face to face with his own immoralities - his lust, deceitfulness, and pride -- in order to finally overcome these vices and become a whole person, "moulded out of faults."

Lings explains:

Now the descent into Hell for the discovery of the soul's worst possibilities is only necessary because these possibilities are an integral part of the psychic substance and need to be recovered, purified, and reintegrated, for in order to be perfect the soul must be complete.... The lost and perverted elements have first to be found and then redeemed, and ... the interval between finding and redemption is likely to be fraught with danger.

The soul cannot be made perfect until it is complete. In order to reverse the process of the Fall by which part of man's soul came under the domination of the devil, it is necessary first of all to regain consciousness of the lost psychic elements that lie in dormant or semidormant perversion in the nethermost depths of the soul. Thus it is that in some traditional stories the descent into Hell is represented by a journey into the depths of the earth in search of hidden treasure: the lost psychic elements are symbolized by precious stones that have been stolen and hidden by diabolically cunning dwarfs. The second part of the spiritual path is concerned with the winning back of the lost jewels, that is, the freeing of the rediscovered psychic substance from the devil's domination....

What is traditionally known as "the descent into Hell" is termed so because through it the lower possibilities of the soul are revealed.... Initiation, followed up by the devotional and ascetic practices that are implicit in it, opens the door to contact with the perfecting and unifying power of the Spirit, whose presence demands that the psychic substance shall once again become a single whole. The more or less scattered elements of this substance are thus compelled to come together; and some of them come in anger, from dark and remote hiding-places, with the infernal powers still attached to them. From this point of view it is truer to say that Hell rises than that the mystic descends; and the result of this rising is a battle between "mighty opposites," with the soul as battleground....

At the outset of the play the perverted psychic elements are more or less dormant and remote from the center of consciousness. They must first of all be woken and then redeemed, for they cannot be purified in their sleep; and it is when they wake in a state of raging perversion that there is always the risk that they will overpower the whole soul. This is what happens with Angelo ...

The "descent into Hell," then, is a necessary but risky procedure - necessary in order to activate the latent qualities of the "shadow," but risky because these traits, once awakened, may take over the personality and trap it in a net of negative influences.

Getting back to the Aeschylus quotation, we can see that "suffering" - through which, "by the awful grace of God," we learn what we need to learn - is just another term for the "descent into Hell." We suffer in order to exhume and reanimate the neglected or suppressed parts of ourselves that must be reintegrated into our total personality in order for spiritual growth to take place.

Thus, "he who learns must suffer" - because the integration of the psyche cannot take place otherwise.

This leaves one more question: How exactly do we manage the reintegration? How do we learn by suffering?

Here I think it is useful to recall the old adage, "The wheel turns." The idea is that everything in this life is temporary. A person may be powerful today and powerless tomorrow - rich today and poor tomorrow - happy today and sad tomorrow. In this world of flux, this "sensual world" (as Buddhists call it), nothing is permanent but change.

Some of the sayings of Jesus reflect this truth, especially his multiple variations on the theme that the last shall be first. (A page of such variations is here; the list includes the famous Beatitudes, which promise that those who are in a low condition today will rise tomorrow. While this may be, in part, a promise of ultimate divine redemption, it is also a simple acknowledgment that throughout the course of life the wheel keeps on turning.)  

I think that the negative, "shadow" character traits that come to fullest life when we are suffering can be understood and overcome by keeping in mind that "the wheel turns." If we feel that things are rotten and hopeless, we can remember that the wheel turns, and that things will be better down the line. If we feel envious of people who seem to be doing better than we are, we can remember that the wheel turns, and that the people we envy will not always be on top. If we feel a lust for power, we can remember that the wheel turns, and that people who wield power often end up on the receiving end of someone else's power. ("He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.")

To bear in mind the turning wheel and the ceaseless fluctuations of life and fortune that it represents is to know a certain kind of calming and healing wisdom. And from this perspective it is possible (though not always easy) to master our baser feelings and accept them, tamed, as part of ourselves.

The steps in this account of spiritual progress, then, would be:

First, the advent of suffering and the arousal of the negative, "shadow" thoughts and feelings that suffering excites.

Second, full awareness of these thoughts and feelings, and even a partial surrender to them in order that they be felt completely. 

Third, the adoption of a wider perspective - "the wheel turns" - in which the present troubles are seen as temporary and tolerable, and the "shadow" emotions are seen as mistaken, grounded in ignorance of the true nature of life. (In effect, the negative emotions are attempts to grab and hold on to things like power, success, and wealth, when in the flux of the sensual world it is impossible to hold on.)

If we go through this proves, we may with luck emerge at the end of it like Prince Hamlet of Act V, who can say with sublime assurance:

There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow.  If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come.  The readiness is all.  Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what isn't to leave betimes?  Let be. 

Comments

[PD]

dm: Thanks for the book reference. Looks like an interesting concept.

[william]

“Oh, and William, you should say more about the differences among compassion, empathy, and sympathy.” I was afraid you might ask the difference.

Compassion cannot be done. We cannot do compassion. Compassion is based in the understanding of the underlying reality of phenomena. I.e. spiritual awareness.

Sympathy is actually feeling the suffering or pain of the other person. We feel their pain, which does not help or heal them. We suffer with them.

Empathy knows about their pain. We might say such things, as we know how you feel when we are being empathic. We have suffered and know how it feels to suffer.

Compassion is of the highest degree in spiritual understanding. Compassion is the purest of love in action. To my knowledge I have only experienced it once in a dream state that many call a visitation that I received in a life review from an entity that showed love and acceptance and an understanding of my struggles in life and the underlying reality and motivation behind my struggles in life.

I suspect but don’t know that during our evolutionary journey we move from sympathy to empathy to higher degrees of compassion. When Jesus or anyone says forgive them they know what they do with total love for that person in their hearts as he or she is being harmed that may be an indicator of compassion.

Dr. Hora’s book beyond the dream writes about these differences. His website is PAGL. Compassion knows no judgment or blame. Example, a compassionate person would show compassion for the worst of the worst of humanity.

A sympatric person I suspect would not show sympathy due to their judgment and blame for a Hitler or the terrorists that kill others for their own hatred of others who do not think like them. A person showing empathy might say something like these people will have to suffer greatly for their sins and for that I feel sorry for them.

An empathic person has knowledge whereas a compassionate person has understanding. World of difference between these two levels of awareness. One is intellectual one is spiritual awareness. One is a knowing, one is a knowing beyond knowing.

A compassionate person would only show love for both the Hitler’s and the terrorists of the world not out of some religious necessity or we have been told it is a good thing to do but out of a sincere love for humanity all humanity.

Best I can do. Hope it helps.

[william]

Would it be possible for a planet to exist where the species only shows compassion and love for all of its inhabitants? Is suffering a necessary condition for the development of life forms on a planet? From my point of view this would be an interesting discussion on suffering.

Is an evolutionary process of consciousness the one and only way for the development of life forms? And could this evolutionary process be different for each planet? Interesting questions I think that may get at the underlying reality of suffering. Perhaps an intellectual discussion is a pre existing condition for discovering these “truths”. Or not.

[Art]

Pain imprints the parameters of the body on the soul. Bits of information. It's how the soul learns about the physical universe. Sort of like the way a sculptor chisels a body out of marble or a computer programmer uses computer code to write a body. The more emotional the experience the more powerful and long lasting the memory it creates.

The soul will use this information after it crosses over to "create" a body in the Spiritual Universe. Heaven is a place where thoughts are things and consciousness creates reality. Where matter is an epiphenomena of consciousness. Each soul learns about time and space and what it's like to live in a 3 dimensional + 1 time universe by spending some time here. Without that knowledge there is no way one can know what it's like to be alive and live in a physical body.

The soul's lessons are embedded in our everyday lives and learns holistically about what it's like to live in a physical universe simply by spending some time in this Physical Universe.

Without that information the soul wouldn't have the information it needs to create it's own reality and would exist in eternal nothingness forever. Without first spending some time in the physical universe there is no way to know what it's like to make love, or taste food, or see a rose or smell a flower or hear sounds or feel touch. One can't read a book about what it feels like to make love to another person and truly know and understand those things. It has to be experienced to be truly understood.

Heaven is a place where thoughts are things and consciousness creates reality. Where matter is an epiphenomena of consciousness. Where consciousness is primary and matter is secondary. (from The Spiritual Universe, by Dr. Fred Alan Wolf).

But, first, in order to be able to create something you have to be able to think of it first. If you have never been exposed to something how can you think about it? If you have never spent any time in a body how can you know what it means and how it feels to be in a physical body?

We are spiritual beings having a physical experience. This earth life is a school. The soul uses the body to learn about the physical universe and then discards the body like a worn out pair of tennis shoes. But while the soul is here in the physical universe it craves sensation and directs the body to do as much as it can to gather that information.

Young girls cutting themselves, religious fanatics in Malaysia who stick metal bars through their skin, religious fanatics who self flagellate themselves, eating scorching hot habenero peppers, African tribes that do scarification rituals, tattoos, body piercings, mosquitoe bites, stubbing your toe, paper cuts, hitting your funny bone, hemorrhoids, every single thing we feel in this life imprints memories, code, on the soul, about the parameters of the body.

Bits of information. Teaching the soul what it means and how it feels to be in the body - and the parameters of that body. Ratios, etc. Little dots of information that when all added up together teach the soul about the body, about time and space, about what it feels like to be "physical."

[Elizabeth]

Great post, Michael. Don't have much time to elaborate here (I wish I did), but please look up K.Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration. I think you'll find it useful as a conceptual framework (and more) for the role of suffering in personality development.

[kerry]

No, Art does have an obession with this separation/Holographic universe thing and it's mind numbingly redundant and boring; so much so that over at the NDERF forums, one of the posters started posting pictures of broken records after Art once again highjacked a thread and began ranting about separation, life being a school where we learn about separation, the holographic universe and separation, ad nauseum. And did I mention separation?

I'm sure Art is a nice guy and so forth, but some of his constant yammering about well worn topics and his allegiance to this highly theoretical holographic universe concept makes me suspicious about Art having a case of OCD in relation to holographic universes, separation, duality, and the entire boring lot. I mean, how many times can a person make the same statements and cover the same territory without realizing that they're repeating themslves and not adding anything new to the discussion?

It is very much like a broken record and although I thought the image of the broken record was a bit harsh, I had to contain my laughter because it's so very true that much of what Art has posted and is still posting is more or less the exact same topic rephrased. I thought to myself, "Finally, someone had the balls to address this issue with Art and his love affair with the holographic universe theory. We all know it's annoying but none of us had the nerve to come right out and say it".

Please, Art, if you're reading this, don't be offended. Just post some fresh and original insights/perspectives every so often; and leave that "separation/holographic universe" stuff alone for awhile. We understand the whole story: the universe is a hologram and life is a school where we come to learn about pain and separation, blah, blah, blah. To some of us, however, this theory neither holds water nor is it helpful to our acceptance and understanding of why there is pain, duality and separation, in the first place.