Essays on Suffering

Why do we suffer? Sometimes, the simplest sounding questions have the most complex answers. Why are we here, who or what is God, and what is the nature of the self? These are all existential questions; they do not have black and white, logical answers,...

Suffering is prevalent in everyone’s life, but the way people react to it differs across theological beliefs. I am going to address the differences in the way the western religion, Christianity, and the way eastern religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, view evil and suffering while incorporating...

Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher known to be the best in his reasoning; he was a student of Plato in Alexandria. Aristotle (384-322 BC) was born in the Greek colony of Stagira. His father, Nicomachus, was physician to the King of Macedonia. Early exposure...

Do you think suffering is important in a story? Suffering is a very important theme in the novel The Book Thief, by Mark Zusak. This novel is about a girl and her close ones who went through a lot of suffering or hardships. Hunger, cold,...

One of the most common translations of the First Noble Truth of Buddhism is “existence is suffering”, implying that to exist, to be alive, brings on pain, loss, grieving, and suffering. Reading Homer’s Odyssey and analyzing the characters, one thing is evident – human suffering...

“Man’s search for meaning” a thought provoking novel written by Doctor Viktor Frankl, tells his own experiences in various concentration camps, including Auschwitz. Such concentration camps were an integral feature of the Nazi Germany regime between 1933 and 1945. The mass killing of estimated six...

In Viktor Frankl ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, he talks about suffering, he describes psychological methods, he often wonders why people who suffer from a multitude of torments did not commit suicide already, and how could they find life worth living. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist, and...

Experience is the hardest teacher. It gives the test first and then the lesson. Suffering provides a powerful opportunity for a person to learn from within themselves and transform the pain and personal evil they are experiencing into something good and beneficial for the future....

Would you be able to live with yourself if you knew your happiness was dependent on the suffering of a child? In the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, written by Ursula K. Le Guin in 1973 this exact question is asked...

Cystic fibrosis has traditionally been a dire diagnosis meaning that there would be a shot life full of many complications, frequent hospital appointments and a poor quality of life. Recent medicine however has enabled people with cystic fibrosis to live longer and higher quality lives...