Suffering is a name given to the kind of feelings, that generally tend
to be avoided because they are uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable in them is
also a dogma and a learned experience. An unlearned person cannot differentiate
between good and bad feelings. Feelings are feelings. Bad and good are mind labelings.
As to the question of why is there
suffering there can only be conjectures. The scriptures and rishis and
maharshis of the great Sanatan tradition have given the answer. According to
them, suffering is required to make people remember the futility of the
objective world and also that there is something much higher than what one can
see and observe.
With suffering one starts to
question their assumptions about the traditionally lived life. Automatically
the charm of the world fades away. Since the mind needs something to latch
onto, it starts to think about the other world. However, the need for freedom
and liberation is an internal longing, that comes out as a result of innate
nature being infinite and unbound.
The awareness makes itself known
in the presence of so-called suffering as well. As the background witness, it
is present during times of suffering also. This suffering causes the mind to
turn inwards away from the bad feelings and towards the witness, the source,
and in doing that there is a temporary cessation of the mind, and that itself
is the first experience of conscious self-remembrance.
Thus we can say that suffering is
the event through which awareness gives a jackpot opportunity to remember itself,
which was not possible or rather not glamorous enough during the presence of
normal thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions.
