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I was thinking this morning about what is meant by "purpose in suffering." To me this doesn't mean martydom.-- that we'll be rewarded with pie in the sky because we have docily and humbly accepted our plight. But rather, suffering can force or prod us to look for deeper meaning in what we're enduring.
To take a well-worn quote from a popular book, "The truth will set you free."
When we're in pain, that's equivalent to a type of bondage. So if the truth, in fact sets us free, then that would mean there is some truth that we're missing.
Hence we are not free.
So, suffering becomes a warning sign that we have veered away from truth, because we are not meant to suffer. Suffering says "go deeper."
For instance, If a person feels unloved, this causes pain and bondage. That person is not free to live and be and feel the richness of who they are. But if they search for, come to understand, and then to KNOW that they ARE love, then that shackle is released.
That to me is what the whole journey is about. Breaking the shackles of suffering by using it to realize Truth. And truth is given according to what we are each ready to recieve when we're ready to receive it.
IMHO
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