Korpo
Learning beyond suffering
by
, 13th January 2013 at 12:59 PM (9681 Views)
I recently read a forum post in another forum where a user professed the belief that suffering was the basis of learning. Maybe I would have agreed many years ago, but this post finds me at a time when I experience the exact opposite.
I find myself learning to understand the possibilities of human relationships anew through the contact with a person far away physically from myself. Only connected through the electronic media of this world we communicate, though I have to say we also seem to have nonphysical contact. While the physical distance is great, there is almost no psychological distance. Finding true acceptance in another is one of the greatest gift one can experience, it is a great expansion of my understanding of myself, of my friend and the larger whole within we dwell.
Suffering may arise when expectations get in the way. So I've been told by a friend who knows. And when I have to chose between this and holding on to my rigid expectations of how things should be, I hope I can keep releasing those expectations I hold. Because every time I did, I stepped into joyful expansion.
So, to me suffering is not the basis of learning. Maybe rather the refusal to learn is suffering, or the resistance or friction we bring to the process. I would have said so intellectually for a long time, but I feel truly blessed to have the experience to make that belief real.