Pain and Suffering by Dr. Carlos Appel, MD

Tay

Peace all,

I got this in an email and found it to be though-provoking. Please comment

All that lives in this world, in nature, animal or human, suffers and yet LOVE is the universal law and it was in LOVE that God created all beings- a contradiction that is, at first glance, unsettling.

Pain follows our every move and we ask the eternal question Why does pain exist?
Some say it is a punishment, a penance. Others say it is reparation for the past, redemption from errors committed in past lives.

In reality, pain is the law of equilibrium, of education. Suffering should be seen as a necessity, as an agent of development and progress. Its effects are beneficial, but only those who have felt it personally can understand this. It is very difficult to make people understand that suffering is good.

Disgrace and trials spring wells within us of a new and more beautiful life. Sadness and suffering make us see, hear and feel thousands of things, great and small, that a happy person cannot perceive; the average person is too caught up in the material world.

Those who have not suffered cannot understand these things because they only value the superficial. There is a lack of greatness in their hearts and they are small-minded.
Misfortune and anguish are necessary to give the soul its moral beauty and awake its sleeping sentiments.

There is a certain something in faces that tears have furrowed that is serious and moved. They take on an expression of austere beauty, a type of majesty that impresses and enchants.

Pain is not reserved for the guilty. In our world, the honorable suffer as much as the wicked. This is because the virtuous soul is more sensitive as it is on a higher evolutionary step, and also because it often seeks pain out, knowing its value in the evolutionary process.

There are souls that come to this world only to be examples of greatness in the face of suffering We praise Christ, Socrates, Joan of Arc, but what of the many others who die daily in the name of service or love and are forgotten? Their examples are not lost; they illuminate the lives of the few who knew them.

Behind all pain is the unseen force that guides and regulates it according to the needs of each individual; pain is merely a method that the Infinite Power uses to call us to It.

For this God put frequent and prolonged pain alongside the rare and fleeting moments of happiness, so that we may feel how our world is a passage and not a final destination. To all of you who complain bitterly of the disappointments, the minor miseries, the tribulations from which the seeds of all existence are sown, who feel overwhelmed by weariness, despondency and self-pity. If you want to learn to face adversity happily, to bear, with resignation, the lot you're given, take a look around you.

Consider the often ignored pain of the masses, the deserted; the suffering of thousands of our fellow humans; the blind, deprived of the light that guides and comforts, those who are paralyzed and powerless; those who want for the most basic necessities; those suffering through unrelenting winter. Think of all these sad, dark, miserable lives. Compare your ills, often imaginary, to the torture of your brothers and sisters who are suffering in pain and judge yourself less unhappy. Have patience and courage and the feeling of limitless compassion and immense love will descend from your heart over all of life's struggling pilgrims.

Make an effort to be an example for others; for your attitude in the face of pain, for the willing and courageous way that you accept it, and for your trust in the future.

Remember that nothing happens in vain or without cause; nearly all of our pains come from ourselves, from our past and they open our way to Heaven.

Dr. Carlos Appel, Abadi?nia, April 2006

unknownuser

Salam Tay

Thanks for the article. The author is pointing out something important that i resently started to understand. Those human beings who has had few or almost none hardships in their life, will probably see life as an amusent park with only joy and fantasy, they won't take life seriously, or care much about other than themselves. It is the hardships that make us stronger in life. One personal development coach by the name Tony Robbins says that the people that contribute the most to humanity are the ones who have experienced pain and hardships.

Peace,
David

noble

Peace Bro Tay,
Great piece from this MD.
Thank you very much for sharing.
God bless you.
Salam
Noble

Rev_John

What a great article, and a great insight to this doctors beliefs.

palestina

on the topic of suffering.... here is another insightful article

http//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18555.htm

The Question of Suffering

"This is an excerpt from a dialogue (through exchange of emails) between Nahida Izzat and her friend Sam, when he asked about her sufferings"

By Nahida Izzat

10/15/07 "ICH" -- -- How could an Intelligent Being allow such cruelty?

A most valid, most important, and most relevant question.

To start with, I am afraid that by talking about this topic, it would be very difficult to be objective. We won't be able to discuss it from a purely scientific perception.

We can't -even if we wanted to- be objective; as this issue entails feelings, emotions, philosophy, personal experience. Therefore I find that ?here- I can't be anything other than subjective; reflecting on my own personal life and my personal experiences.

The most negative occurrences in the life of a human being can be summarized as such physical pain, emotional pain (sorrow), and fear.

Contemplating on my own life and like every one on the planet I've experienced all; but with such intensity that some times it felt and feels almost unbearable.

As little girl I survived the horrors of war, I watched my childhood being stolen away from me. I witnessed the destruction of a people. I experienced the loss of every thing I loved; including my home, my garden, my relatives, my friends, my village, my identity, even my much-loved books and school bag.

I had to rely on UN food and cloths parcels in order to survive.

I witnessed fighter planes flying so low in the sky -that as a child you thought they're about to fall onto your head- while bombing villages killing innocent women and children.

At such a tender age, I came face to face with human cruelty and brutality and witnessed their ability to inflect so much pain, suffering, and humiliation upon its own kind.

I left home as a refugee with absolutely nothing except the two dresses and a jumper that my mum had forced me to put on in the burning heat of Middle Eastern summer.

She could carry nothing as her youngest baby was only three months old; she had to look after him and his four other sisters; the eldest was only seven years old. For six days we were hiding in a tomb in one of the graveyards in a neighbouring village.

I lived through a kind of fear that had left its permanent mark on me. Until this very day I still jump when I hear a loud noise; I still tremble when I hear the roar of an airplane.

My family of seven and I had lived for some years of our life sharing one room, living with another family of twelve (in Jordan ), then sharing with a different family of ten (in Libya ).

At a very young age, I've experienced pain, fear, and sorrow that many people don't experience in a lifetime.

I agonized as my roots were uprooted time and time again; so much so that at the age of seventeen I decided to live an isolated life refusing to talk to anyone, by doing so I was trying to protect my sanity.

My experiences at the time had taught me that I should never allow my self to make friends or love any one; as every one I loved I ended up loosing or getting separated away from.

As a young mother I was severely ill that I thought I was dying, I asked the doctors to allow me to leave the hospital for few hours because I wanted to see "Beauty and the Beast" movie with my children before it was too late; as I didn't think I'd make it to watch anything else with them let alone watch them grow.

The pain that I went through at the time was so horrendous that it would keep me awake all day and night; they had to use powerful sedatives to put asleep.

I prayed that no one ever may go through what I've been going through.

For four years I was bed ridden, fighting what seemed to be an endless battle with ruthless pain; at some point I couldn't even hold a cup of tea in my hand let alone making one.

I couldn't even drive; Khaled used to put me in the car and try to take me out by driving around for a little while just to lift my spirit up. At the end of each trip I'd come home shattered and so exhausted that I would decide I would never leave the house again.

I would read a paragraph over and over and over again without being able to understand a thing. People would be surrounding me chatting trying to cheer me up, yet I wasn't even able to comprehend what they were saying.

I sat in front of the consultant with tears flooding into my eyes as he told me that this is it for me. Announcing a life-sentence of pain and agony, and advising me that I should stop hoping to become better or be cured; rather I should be looking for ways of coping with my new life-imprisonment.

I stared at him while he was confirming the end of my life -as I knew it- in horror and disbelief, refusing to believe anything he said as my thoughts echoed "who do you think you are? You are not God to be telling me this nonsense"

The last episode of my extraordinary -yet very ordinary- life was the loss of my dearest, my greatest, my one and only love.

That episode you and other friends have been eyewitnesses to.

From this summarized narrative of my life you could vividly see that I've almost hit rock-bottom of every negative experience that any human can go through

Loss of physical health and living with excruciating pain

Loss of all material positions even my very own identity

Loss of mental and intellectual capacities

Loss of the love of my life

By going into so much detail about my life I was eager to emphasize the reality that through my experiences I have a reasonable idea about pain and what it means to suffer.

Now then, through all what I've been through; One Thing and one thing only kept me going, helped me, held me, and carried me through; and that is my Faith.

I could never reconcile my agonized painful existence with futility and lack of purpose.

My logic and my feelings lead me to conclude that if everything came from nothing, if there was no purpose in the existence of the universe, if there is no purpose in the existence of life; then, it's more reasonable to think that there is no purpose in a life full of agony such as mine, there is no point in living on to suffer more. I.e. there is no purpose in life. period.

The only thing that could ever console and comfort this troubled soul of mine was this faith, this insight and intuition that this can't all be in vain.

And like a tender mother's hand stroking her child

Like a soft warm blanket in a cold winter night

Like gentle rain drops drizzling over a parched piece of land

Like a rainbow flowing piercing through thick dark clouds

I feel God's loving hand

Then?

Then this sweet? sweet comfort that overwhelms you, embraces you as you humbly say

Here I am God? exhausted? come to my aid

Here I am God? in much anguish? relieve me? ease my pain

Here I am God? full of sorrow? soothe my hurt

Here I am God? lonely? be my friend and companion.

Here I am God? tiered? help me?hold me? heal me

Here I am God? lost? guide me? show me the way

That distressed soul? that troubled heart would be magically transformed?

Calm would descend? tranquillity and serenity would prevail? joy would overwhelm? and sweet? sweet comfort would embrace you.

You feel helped... held? healed? and carried through.

Even if the pain is still there!

There are no words in any human dictionary or vocabulary that could come near into describing that feeling, all we can do is give analogies.

Never the real feelings

Then with time; and in retrospect the wisdom of what you've been through will become more apparent.

Like pieces of a jigsaw your life would start making sense; some of the pieces might be very murky and horrible, others might be bright and colourful, each piece
alone does not make any sense; yet as they assemble together a beautiful pattern emerges, an amazing picture materializes.

Such was my life.
Such is life

Nahida Izzat, is a -Jerusalem born- Palestinian refugee living in exile for over 40 years. She was forced to leave my homeland, Palestine at the age of seven during the six-day war. Nahida, is a mathematician by profession but art is one of her favourite pastimes. Please visit her website PoetryforPalestine - http//poetryforpalestine.spaces.live.com/default.aspx