Why do people suffer, and how can they bear it? Here are answers from eight traditions, side by side, in each book's own words. Every quote is checked word for word and links to its full passage.
2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Rabbi Yanai says: It is not in our power to explain the security of the wicked, nor the suffering of the righteous.
5 But lo! with hardship goeth ease, 6 Lo! with hardship goeth ease;
286 Allah tasketh not a soul beyond its scope.
Be not over-glad Attaining joy, and be not over-sad Encountering grief, but, stayed on Brahma, still Constant let each abide!
7. When to a man who understands, the Self has become all things, what sorrow, what trouble can there be to him who once beheld that unity?
This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of Suffering: Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; illness is suffering; death is suffering. Presence of objects we hate, is suffering; Separation from objects we love, is suffering; not to obtain what we desire, is suffering.
WHAT, now, is the Noble Truth of the Extinction of Suffering? It is the complete fading away and extinction of this craving, its forsaking and giving up, the liberation and detachment from it.
Suffering is the medicine, and pleasure the disease, because where there is pleasure, there is no desire for God.
Thus, when Heaven is about to confer a great office on any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it stimulates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.
Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
Every quote on this page is checked word for word against the stored text of its book.
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