THERE
IS NO ESCAPE FROM PAIN
Pain is a universal human phenomenon.
Nobody has ever been able to escape from it.
It is defined as aching, throbbing,
smarting, , pang, discomfort, irritation, spasm, cramp, agony, affliction,
torture, torment, unhappiness, distress, anguish, misery, wretchedness, etc.
The antonyms of pain are happiness,
pleasure, joy, rapture, comfort, consolation, delight, solace, elation, bliss,
glee, felicity, euphoria, exuberance, etc.
Whereas pain is common, pleasure is occasional
and rare.
The English poet and novelist Thomas
Hardy (1840-1928) said in his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge : Happiness is the occasional episode in a
general drama of pain. It happens when what you think, what you say and what
you do are in harmony.
According to Lord Buddha pain is the
outcome of sin. Suffering, he says, has a cause, and this cause can be
eliminated by adopting the rightful eightfold path comprising, right intention,
right view, right action, right speech, right effort, right mindfulness and right
concentration.
The practices of the above-mentioned path lead to the liberation of human beings from
the painful cycle of rebirth.
The English bishop Thomas Bentham (1513-1579)
said: Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters,
pain and pleasure. It is for them to point out what we ought to do, as well as
to determine what we shall do. On the one hand, the standard of right and
wrong; on the other, the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their
throne.
There are no permanent pleasures.
They are temporary and lay the foundations of new pains. Pleasure is one of the
causes of pain.
Finally, this quote by Helen Keller:
Although the world is full of suffering. It is also full of the overcoming of
it.
******
G.R.Kanwal
11 October 2024
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