What would be a heart-centred understanding of suffering, in myself or others? Do I want to be “comfortable” with suffering?
How I react to the suffering of others is influenced by if I consider their suffering to be valid NOT on how the person is actually feeling. A dropped ice cream cone can seem like the end of the world to a five-year-old, but unless that ice cream has some additional meaning (first ice cream, father’s last $3) I would not be deeply affected
I seem to now be between two views, my new and old belief about suffering. On the one hand I do now consider suffering to be a result of a person’s perspective, stance, or state of mind on what is happening. But I also still think that in some circumstances,like great pain, suffering is unavoidable
I have a stronger, more unpleasant reaction to suffering when I perceive the cause to be either something that happened in the past that cannot be changed or something that is currently happening with no hope of it ending. Either way, powerlessness to change the apparent cause of the suffering