Suffering - The Best Medicine And The Biggest Killer
An old Asian proverb says: “If you want to do something good for your children, let them experience some cold and hunger.” This proverb stresses the fact that a short-time lack or some suffering can be useful elements in one's life. I will now explain how it works in human life.
Suffering as well as everything else has its two sides - its pros and cons. Into some extend it is beneficial for a man and it can be considered a kind of necessity. But when in excess, it becomes a burden and a disaster for the suffering man.
Firstly let us focus on the suffering that is healthy and more beneficial than harmful.
There would be no pleasure of drinking without thirst, no pleasure of eating without hunger, without the unpleasant feeling caused by being tired we would not appreciate refreshing sleep and so on. As for suffering, it teaches us to distinguish between good and evil, to appreciate positive things in our life, to love and hate.
Certain minimal suffering is a common and necessary part of our life, as well as some minimum of fear. Were we afraid of nothing we would be knocked down when crossing the street, whereas when we fear cars, we are more careful and cross the street carefully. Of course, we can get hit by a car anyway, if it is our Destiny. But it is less probable than if we were careless.
The suffering that warns us about our own mistakes and which helps us find the way how to avoid them in the future is the best remedy for us. If we did not enjoy our health and suffered a minor problem that was easily solved and we are all right again, then we enjoy it the more. And we enjoy it more because of the situation when we lost it for a while. So when we are healthy again, we are more pleased by our health than before the illness. Then we can appreciate our life more. In this case the illness was the best remedy that we could wish.
If we were fully healthy for many years, we would not appreciate it that much any more and we would be in a worse situation than some of the people who are little sick.
On the other hand if we were seriously ill and were suffering a permanent pain, then our suffering would break us, we would become desperate and envy other people their health. And then we would go crazy and start doing such bad things we would never commit if we were healthy. What is more, when we suffer the people who love us suffer as well and so our pain is their pain too. It destroys relationships in the family and between friends and forces us to live and think in such a way to damage our Karma and so our suffering destroys not only our body but also our soul.
That is why a minor suffering is the best remedy and a major suffering is the biggest killer, as it destroys us and our beloved ones. So also suffering has two faces, the good and the bad one. And it can be the best remedy and the biggest killer at the same time.