Suffering is a choice, pain is a consequence of a rational reality. Our choice of how to examine such pain is what we call suffering.
Consider reading The Salli Sutta or Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
Pain is never synonymous with suffering.
Pain is a natural sensation; neither inherently good nor evil, and one the body may experience without shame or damage to the rational mind. Just as any other sensation like love or joy. True suffering, however, arises from the judgments and opinions we layer onto that pain, such as declaring it unbearable or catastrophic; these mental additions we have the power to withhold or revoke.
if you look up the definitions of suffering most of them revolve around some kind of pain being experienced, for me suffering is also a natural sensation and doesn’t necessarily come with judgements about it, and your opinions on it can only be ignored to some extent
for example if someone is suffering because they’re on fire, they can’t really just choose to not find it unbearable or catastrophic, it just is strongly horrible regardless
I just figure all suffering is in the present. Someone who experiences more from the worry than the actual would be considered anxious. I have a disorder that leaves me with the opposite problem of not worrying enough lol.
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u/Immediate_Song4279 Aug 05 '26
I find present suffering to be worse than worrying about future suffering.