On Suffering

Buddhism is big on avoiding suffering.
The Four Noble Truths are the Buddha's recipe
for doing so.
Buddhism lends itself to escape from suffering
by denial of suffering.

Chanting,
memorizing the Dharma,
adhering to the directions of teachers,
sitting in meditation,
concentrating on breathing,
ignoring the thoughts coming to mind,
thinking only of the Buddha
and the practice of Buddhism,
keep one from dwelling on one's suffering--
but suffering is as close
as wanting,
desiring,
fearing,
duty and obligation.

The emphasis on avoiding suffering
is a reflection of the Buddha's neurosis 
developing from his shock 
over encountering the reality
of sickness, suffering, dying and death,
and spending his life making peace
with this simple fact of existence:
Wanting and not getting-having result in suffering.

The appalling impact of unmet desire
has two alternative options:
Growing up
and Denial.

The Buddha opted for the latter
and created a religion based on escape and denial.

Growing up has much to commend it
as an alternative to suffering.

Carl Jung said, “It is the individual’s task to differentiate themselves from all the others and stand on their own feet.”

And: “The development of personality means fidelity to the law of one’s own being.” 

“Fidelity to the law of one’s own being” is being true to our Original Nature, our innate virtues (The things we do best and enjoy doing most), our inherent imagination, and our intrinsic intuition, and living the truth of those things out within the context and circumstances of our life throughout our life.

Although Buddhism would never embrace it, our Original Nature virtues, imagination, intuition are individual across all of humanity. We do not share the these traits with anyone. We are indistinguishable from one another. We are a multiplicity!

Our Original Nature, etc. are Original with us! These qualities are uniquely our own, just as our fingerprints and the cones of our irises are unique to us. We are not all One in the sense of an undifferentiated mass. We are One in the sense of sharing in the plurality of humanity. We all have similar characteristics but not the same characteristics. "We are all one--but not the same one!"

Carl Jung calls us to embrace our own person-hood with these statements:

 “At bottom, there is only one striving, namely the striving after your own being.”

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”

"To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed."

“Our visions will become clear only when you can look into our own heart."

“Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own.” 

“Trust that which gives you meaning and accept it as your guide.”

“We only gain merit and psychological development by accepting ourselves as we are, and by being serious enough to live the life we are entrusted with.” 

"Turning the light around" for Jung means "looking into oneself. Discovering yourself provides you with all you are, were meant to be, and all you are living from and for.” 

Jung said, “Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries.”

“In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential that we embody. If we do not embody that, life is wasted.” 

The essential that we embody” is our Original Nature, etc. They constitute the “Face that was ours before we/our parents/our grandparents were born.” 

And we all grow up against our will. Growing up requires us to part ways with our desires, fears, even our sense of duty to our parents, say, or the systems governing life and being, and to Buddhism. Growing up is saying "No!" to ourselves in doing what is called for in each situation as it arises, regardless of its implications for us personally.


Jung saw The psyche, the unconscious, as standing in opposition to our agendas, desires, self-interests, will, aims, ambitions, etc. And is forever calling us back to our Original Nature, etc., to serve the cause of the self-realization of our own self via self-expression, self-exhibition, of the truth of our own being—who we always been and who we will always be—in the moment-to-moment reality of the circumstances comprising each situation as  it arises, all our life long.

It is only by bearing the pain of our own polarities, which cannot be reconciled/integrated, but must remain in eternal suspension, with each individual standing in full awareness of the two opposites that are mutually exclusive and both true expressions of how things are: This is how things are and that is also how things are--and THAT is how things are! And that is the grounding foundation of the suffering of existence! Wracked between incompatible truths of our own being, requiring realization and acknowledgment of irreconcilable opposites at the heart of existence--for example, I want to be the best father in all the world, and I do not want to be a father at all.

We must not seek to escape the pain of suffering, but rather to bear the unbearable by embracing the burden of legitimate suffering, so that we say along with Odysseus, "I will bear with it and endure, and when the heaving sea destroys my raft, then I will swim!"

Jung said, “Psychological or spiritual development always requires a greater capacity for anxiety and ambiguity.” This is the ability to bear the pain of our existence in each situation as it arises for as long as life lasts.  

We have to bear the pain, or experience the pain of our refusal to bear the pain, brought forth in the form of symptoms as the natural result of our refusing to live consciously within the tension of our immutable contradictions.

“Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering," said Jung. And, "There is no coming to consciousness without pain." And, “The development of consciousness is the burden, the suffering, and the blessing of humankind.”

Suffering is our calling. We will not grow into our potential as human beings without answering that calling and living fully aware of our responsibility to bring ourselves forth in meeting our life full-on and doing what is called for in each situation as it arises to the best of our ability, time after time.