Wikipedia will tell you that it is pain and unpleasantness. But that is too shallow. That isn’t true suffering. To me, suffering is when thoughts start causing physical pain. When the prospect of death seems like the only escape. But sometimes not even death can stop suffering.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot. What is the nature, the purpose of suffering. And then, it hit me. Maybe the lack of a purpose is the problem? It is easier to take pain when we know when it will end, or when we know that it is a pain of healing. But when it is a destructive pain, or suffering without a purpose, then it is true suffering. Pain for the sake of pain, where nothing is gained and everything is lost. Is that the nature of suffering? I don’t know. I can’t say that I experienced true suffering on that level. I don’t think anyone has. Or at least they haven’t lived long enough to tell the tale.
Is being stuck upside down in a cave until you slowly die, knowing nobody will come to rescue you true suffering? Is being a victim of a terrible crime and not being able to ever get justice for it true suffering? Or is it something simpler?
I was never good with words. So please don’t blame me if I can’t fully define it. That is exactly why I ask this question. I invite you all to discuss the essence and the nature of suffering with me. I wish to understand.
DISCLAIMER: This is a philosophical question. Nothing more, nothing less.
I like the fact that “to suffer” can be a transitive verb, taking a direct object, of which “I don’t suffer fools” is an example, albeit not one relevant to this theme, in which case it partially carries the meaning “to endure”.
Firstly, I don’t think that there is a predetermined or universal purpose of suffering. I think that the Wikipedia abstraction is in fact good, because it moves away from trying to generalize.
Secondly, your examples conflict with the question in the title, because your examples, while helpful for starting discussions, make it sound like you are trying to hear what people think are the worst ways to suffer, simply. The question in the title of your post, on the other hand, is to me much more intriguing, since it enables me to say:
To me, suffering can be sweet, although this interpretation perhaps deviates from its most common connotations, as in, the result of torture, agony, anger, fear, grief and so on. Whenever my self hatred reaches levels that drive me to start imaging hurting people around me in order to release, I instead turn all that destructive energy inwards, and when I do, I want to vomit, scream, bleed, explode, implode and die, but the total result of that, which is one example of what I call suffering, can give me such a kick of adrenaline that I experience some sort of euphoria.
Suffering in itself is nothing more than a Wikipedia abstraction. Only in a context with an active subject/actor does it have purpose or function. For animals, including humans, self aware or not, for instance, it can serve as an indicator that a certain behavior, place or adversary needs to be avoided and that this knowledge has to be passed on to their descendants.
Thank you for the comment. The examples I gave were purely for the purpose of roughly approximating my personal definition/understanding of “suffering”. I tried to be vague, to avoid making people think of “worst ways to suffer”. Seems it didn’t work very well.
You say that to you suffering is a result. But I don’t fully agree with that view. Suffering is not an emotion, it’s more of a state. Emotions are reactions, states are different, more complex. And self-loathing is not the essence of suffering either. Not to me personally. But it is definitely a part of it.
Personally, I don’t connect the concepts of suffering and catharsis. These actually seem like opposites. I tried to separate the concepts of suffering and pain (including mental pain), but they are too connected to do that. Although, what I can definitely say: Just physical pain or just mental pain is not “true suffering”. At no point am I trying to deminish or “put down” people who say that these things make them suffer. It is just that I am looking for the central “concept” around suffering, and what it means to people.
Thank you for your contribution to the dicussion.