Is It Good to Suffer and Sacrifice?

I have spoken to many Christian practitioners in the past and many feel that suffering should be revered. Yet, to revere suffering is essentially to alter the experience of suffering, since as a personal experience, we have applied the qualitative definition of "reverence" thereby minimizing the very experience of suffering that we seek. If I "revere" suffering can I then continue to identify myself as suffering? If my interpretation determines my experience, and I choose to 'suffer' because I feel it has spiritual value or worth in some way, have I not then diminished the potential to suffer merely through altering that interpretation? In fact, if I reflect on my past suffering, and thus see it as crucial to my current spiritual growth, have I not then altered it from suffering to something more valuable to me, possibly negating it as "suffering" altogether?

Most likely we do not "revere" suffering in the moment of suffering and we wish to be free of it, because if we did not wish to be free of it how could we identify ourself as suffering? Suffering is unwanted and demands relief. This seems to relate to the pain/pleasure principle in which we instinctively on impulse move away from pain and toward pleasure.

Possibly the differentiation is between the suffering I experience, or believe I experience now, as opposed to the suffering I reflect on as a product of my past, which I now hold to as defining me as valuable in some way based on my past suffering. In this way we can re-interpret suffering as necessary to the spiritual culmination we seek, but we should make no mistake, we have altered the interpretation and no doubt, the experience has been changed.

I can only remark on my experience of suffering and also I can only remark on my experience of my witnessing others suffer. I cannot ever know the existential experience of other's suffering, but I can project an interpretation onto others, who I interpret as suffering, based on my experience of what suffering feels like - contrast and comparison. However, frequently we may find that our interpretation of suffering projected upon others was not correct and they suffered barely or not at all. We only assumed they suffered based on our own past experience and our beliefs about why suffering should occur.

Suffering is akin to sacrifice and is a chief theoretical proposition of much Christian dogma. However, it seems that we can be free of the bonds of suffering immediately upon choosing to do so and many have claimed to have made such an 'interpretation.' Yet, this might negate 'sacrifice' and that too, is the keystone of much religious dogma, so it easy to recognize how many might choose to continue suffering due to strong adherence to the concept of sacrificing for God.

So it seems that we have 'levels' of hell that are congruent with levels of suffering. And do we simply equate less suffering with financial wealth and access to resources. The Guatemalen serfs suffer, while the wealthy landowner does not. Yet both must face death, their own and the death of loved ones and both will suffer through that. It may be that a deeper spiritual perspective will identify that both rich and poor suffer through the limits of embodied existence.

If hell is a state of mind, then clearly one's level of wealth may make little difference in that regard and many richer, developing countries have as high, if not higher, rates of suicide.

Possibly, we live our lives in a state of 'level confusion,' in which the world teaches that wealth leads to happiness, yet once wealth is accrued many often find that it makes no difference and may, in fact, intensify a 'hellacious' state of mind. Is there a general assumption that financial wealth is the way out of mental 'hell' and the associated suffering?

If our eyes continue to differentiate between the haves and the have-nots, we may become stuck in our own state of hell. "Seek not to change the world, but to change your mind about the world" (famous quote).

DO WE BELIEVE 'HAPPINESS' DEMANDS SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE?

The world is built on sacrifice and inherent to your sacrifice must be suffering, else it is not sacrifice. Even conventional society emphasizes sacrifice to a higher good. You sacrifice all your life in work expecting the reward of retirement. You sacrifice your needs and wants for your children hoping they can have a better life. We sacrifice for the beloved as symbol of our love.

We emulate those who have suffered through hard work and have attained the prize in greater wealth and access to resources. However, we tend to look down on inherited wealth as NOT emblematic of sacrifice and suffering. Were you promoted because you suffered through hard work or was it 'who you knew'? I will laud you for one and resent you for the other.

We spend years sacrificing in academic study for the reward of expert status and title. These years of suffering demand reverence to my sacrifice. My friends, you must "pay your dues" and suffering, by 'degrees,' is that payment!

Spiritual paths teach sacrifice and that you must practice and only through the deepest suffering will you reach the prize. Meditate longer, harder and deeper. Do you believe you must sacrifice the desires of 'ego' and if you are not suffering through that sacrifice then clearly your sacrifice is a sham (and God knows it!). They claim you must practice more and suffer deeper and you will attain enlightenment but, make no mistake, without sacrifice, and the suffering that makes your sacrifice ‘real,' you cannot attain bliss.

Even Eckhart Tolle's "dark night of the soul" was claimed a sacrifice of great suffering, which brought him to "enlightened mind." Could it be that this belief does a grave disservice to those who seek spiritual guidance? But if the world is built on hard work, suffering and sacrifice, God must require it, or so we suppose.

Not to KNOW, demands we suffer through the interminable learning of the truth. The truth is available, or so they say, and you must suffer through 'time' to learn of it and in that you have no choice.

Jesus sacrificed for our sins, while Buddha sacrificed self. Every religion has sacrifice and suffering within its dogma and it is from the dogma of religion that culture unfolds and imitates sacrifice (and so we have the Puritan work ethic). The morality of religion shapes and molds laws, norms and mores. All of it demands suffering and sacrifice. Work hard!

And make no mistake within your commitment to sacrifice must be suffering. Otherwise, how could you have sacrificed if you did not suffer? In fact, we glorify those who have suffered greatly in the name of sacrifice. We uphold Mother Teresa as the epitome of sacrifice and suffering.

Sacrifice is so deeply inherent to the unconscious that we could never plumb the depths of our indoctrinated idolizing of sacrifice. We do not worship God, but our sacrifice for God. We believe sacrifice has great value. We will eventually sacrifice the body for death and we will suffer through that idea in life simply because we are uncertain of the prize.

Does all this suffering and sacrifice bring us any closer to love or does it merely make us more distant? Why would God require sacrifice or is it just our own absurd idea? Is sacrifice a fact of existence or is it entirely our choice?

Could it be that suffering, sacrifice, and all that hard work you've done, was not necessary at all and, in fact, impeded your enlightenment?