Suffering (in a Spiritual Context)

When reading the works of many spiritual writers, their themes tend to roughly follow the Buddhist concept of the Four Noble Truths. In the Four Noble Truths, “suffering” plays a big role, but interestingly, many teachers say the word “suffering” isn’t an accurate translation of what the Buddha said. There actually is no good English translation that matches the original, and unfortunately, the English definition of “suffering” doesn’t convey what Buddha meant (though it is still one way to understand the Truths).

In its essence, what is meant by “suffering” is the experience of not feeling connected to god (or the universe, or the soul). And the results that come from living without connectedness to god (stress, anxiety, overwhelmed-ness, dissociation, etc.) can also be included in this understanding of suffering.

So, when the First Noble Truth says, Life means suffering. It really means that in life we will often not feel connected to the world around us, or god (it is all the same). Even for the most spiritual human, there will be moments of not “feeling” connected. The Second Noble Truth, The origin of suffering is attachment, implies that we will not experience god when we are attached to outcomes (or seeking materialism, or seeking to fulfill our ego). The Third Noble Truth, The cessation of suffering is attainable, tells us that we can be connected to god by not being attached to our ego’s definition of ourselves or our idea of what symbols (such as cars, houses, money---materialistic things) mean to us and about us. The Fourth Noble Truth, There is a path to the cessation of suffering, tells us that we can be more connected to god through self-improvement. By taking responsibility for feelings and circumstances (as M. Scott Peck discusses in The Road Less Traveled), we can transcend the negative emotions that keep us from feeling connected to god and we can overcome our attachment to things we hope will make us feel better but actually do not.