{"id":6600,"date":"2019-06-15T16:04:46","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T14:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cmc.deusto.eus\/enzuazua\/?p=6600"},"modified":"2022-03-21T07:28:22","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T06:28:22","slug":"pain-or-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cmc.deusto.eus\/enzuazua\/pain-or-suffering\/","title":{"rendered":"Pain or suffering?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All animals with nervous\nsystems feel pain as a result of physical injury or the heightened tension\ncaused by situations of serious danger, threat or stress.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of human beings,\nthe intelligent minds which enable us to deploy our full potential in\nfavourable circumstances are no help in mitigating pain: indeed they act as an\necho chamber that turns it into suffering.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The mind delves into pain and\naccentuates it by continually, uselessly speculating as to how long it will\nlast, whether it will get worse, how much we can stand, what risks it may pose\neventually to life itself, whether death is stalking us, how it may hinder us\nin carrying out the responsibilities that we have taken on and what\nconsequences all this may have for those closest to us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why Buddhism teaches\nthat pain is inevitable, as an inherent part of the nature of living beings,\nbut that suffering can be avoided if the mind\u2019s great loudspeaker can be\nswitched off. To that end, it teaches practices based on relaxation and\nmeditation that call for great discipline and perseverance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St. Dominic in Prayer (El Greco) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Combating suffering is also\none of the goals of the Christian tradition, which offers prayer as a remedy;\nmore as a mechanism for short-circuiting the mind\u2019s processes than as an appeal\nto an unlikely miracle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not easy to disengage the\nautonomous operation of the brain, accustomed as we are to letting it pilot our\nlives in its constant activity, of which we are largely unaware. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why science, and\nmedicine in particular, has dedicated so much effort and achieved some of its\ngreatest successes in understanding the mechanisms that generate pain and in\ndeveloping ways of short-circuiting them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research in this field has\nbeen hugely successful. It is astonishing how far easily-accessible drugs can\nnow go in eliminating the most common symptoms of pain almost instantly, and\nhow effective they are in the most acute processes. The elimination or\nreduction of pain closes the door on suffering, making our lives more bearable,\nand as such is one of the great advances of our civilisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, even today the\nproportion of the world\u2019s population who continue to suffer is too high, and is\nproving hard to bring down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advances continue to be\nattained in medicine and pharmaceuticals, but economic recessions, natural\ndisasters, injustice and warfare not only continue to provide seemingly\ninexhaustible sources of pain and suffering but also prevent large parts of the\npopulation from accessing remedies to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in Europe, where we have\ngrown used to the state generously providing widespread medical care, some\npolicies have had to be downgraded due to a lack of funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, however\nincredible it may seem in such an advanced country, which leads the world in\nmany areas, the the Obama administration in the US has had to fight a huge battle to try and provide the country with a\nreasonably public universal healthcare system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Scream (Edvard Munch) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thus, an irregular, variable\nfrontier in the struggle against pain can be traced across the surface of the\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And where pain is most\nintense, suffering is king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer is a time that seems\nmore suited to the pursuit of pleasure, relaxation and rest than to pain and\nsuffering, but it is also a time when we can step back and observe aspects of\ncurrent life that go unnoticed during the academic year, among which there are a\ngood many episodes of pain and suffering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer several cases have\nbeen reported in the press of intrepid young people who have lost their lives\nin accidents while mountain climbing and bungee jumping. Over and above the\npain that these tragic accidents have caused to victims themselves, in the time\nbetween the slip and the moment of death, the shadow of suffering that will\nstretch over their families forever is not hard to envisage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The summer has also brought\nmore news stories of crimes of passion and terrible murders which give rise to\nhellish, endless suffering. We have had our share of terrorist attacks inspired\nby radicalism too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In such circumstances it is\nhard to follow the Buddha\u2019s recommendations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witness to this can be borne\nby the families of the passengers of Malaysia Airlines flight 370, which\ndisappeared without trace in the Indian Ocean over a year ago and wreckage from\nwhich is said to have been found on Reunion Island. The same goes for the\nfamilies of those who died in the Barcelona-Dusseldorf flight that was\ndeliberately crashed into a mountain in the Alps by its pilot last spring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also many people who\nlive with pain caused by less high-profile, less scandalous circumstances, but\nthat does not mean that they suffer any less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over and above catastrophic\nevents, our day-to-day lives are filled with little pockets of injustice,\nsocial marginalisation, poverty, people smuggling, disability (often\nexacerbated by bad luck), violence and abuse of power which provide fertile\nsoil for pain and suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We generally only learn of\nsuch situations through statistics, but they are real, ongoing, intense\nhotspots for frustration, pain and suffering both individually and\ncollectively, for direct victims and their families alike, and we seldom pay\nthem the attention that they deserve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Equity depicted on a Roman coin from the time of Nerva <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is why any society worthy\nof calling itself democratic and progressive needs to make combating pain and\nsuffering one of its priority goals, in regard not just to conventional\nhealthcare but also to all the aspects of public administration that govern our\nlives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is possible to fine-tune\nlegislation, but it will inevitably fall short of stopping all deliberate\nmalevolent actions by human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching is therefore\nessential. Our education system provides an excellent base for teaching that\nsuffering can be relieved if we take fuller ownership of the engines of our own\nminds and strive to achieve the difficult task of disconnecting their power\nsupply when they start revving too fast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also provides a foundation\nfor teaching the importance in the administration of rigorously applying a protective\nshield of universal justice that is equal for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These tasks are never-ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a lot of unfinished\nwork in this area. The current legislature in the Basque Country is a good\nexample of how painstakingly we need to work to break through the layer of\nsuffering left in a great many families by the violence in our recent past, to\nrebuild a scenario of mutual trust in society and bring out the will to share a\ncommon future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a child scrapes his knee\nwhile playing in the park, a hug from his mother suffices to banish suffering.\nBut as we grow up, pain and suffering all too often become chronic, etching\ndeep (though not always visible) lines into our faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n