- By Iram Hussain
- Wed, 09 Oct 2024 05:26 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
World Mental Health Day 2024: Suffering is not about external circumstances but about our inner perspective. It's a mental concept, not a fact. We suffer when we resist life's situations, feeling threatened insecure or small. However, acceptance and openness can liberate us from this mental anguish. By recognizing pain as an inevitable part of life, yet choosing not to suffer, we can break free from the cycle of negativity. Our imagination which often perpetuates suffering, can also be harnessed to transform our perspective. Ultimately, the cessation of suffering or Nirvana is not an elevated state but a return to our natural, peaceful essence where we are no longer held hostage by our thoughts and emotions.
In a conversation with Jagran English, Acharya Prashant, a Vedanta teacher, social reformer and a national bestselling author explained the core structure of suffering and how fake depression harms more than actual depression through the mechanism of suffering.
Phenomenon Of Suffering
Suffering stems from our self-perception of being small and limited. This mindset fuels resistance, leading to psychological distress. Our imagination perpetuates suffering by creating concepts like "I am vulnerable" and "I must resist." This mental framework ties suffering to our inner sense of well-being and self-identity. Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional. It's a product of our thoughts not external circumstances. To support this argument, he explained it with the help of questions like Can you be happy without being full of acceptance for a situation? Your acceptance comes from your expectations. Can you suffer without being full of resistance to a situation? You suffer only when you do not want something to happen. Your resistance is the suffering and who is the one that resists? The one who feels himself to be threatened, insecure and small. So he says, “If this happens, then I am in danger. So let me resist.” The moment you resist, suffering starts.
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How suffering can impact your overall wellness (Image Credits: Canva)
Thus, real depression is a legitimate mental health condition whereas fake depression arises from self-victimisation and negative thought patterns. The latter is more harmful as it:
1. Reinforces limiting self-beliefs
2. Foster resistance to life's challenges
3. Creates unnecessary suffering
4. Distracts from genuine mental health issues
We can experience pain without suffering just as animals do. They don't intellectualize pain, they simply live. Humans, however, have the capacity for self-reflection which can be both empowering and debilitating. He said man is a creature of the imagination. That is probably the difference between man and the rest of existence. Man alone lives in thought. Man alone is intellectual. The others live; we live intellectually. It’s we who have a “tail.” The tail is the intellect.
Thus, by dropping our intellectual "tail" and living in the present we can transcend suffering. Fake depression, fueled by imagination and negative thoughts is more harmful than real depression as it perpetuates unnecessary suffering.
