Buddhist and Christian Takes on "Suffering"

Being as how it is Holy Week for Christians, and focused (for some) on the passion (from Latin passio, "suffering"), or intense physical and spiritual sufferings of Jesus Christ between the Last Supper and his death on the Cross, I have been thinking about "suffering" as core theological insights of Buddhism and the Catholic form of Christianity.

Both Catholicism and Buddhism place suffering at the center of their teachings, viewing it as a universal human reality that demands a serious response.

Neither tradition denies the reality of pain, but Catholicism focuses on ways to redeem it while Buddhism seeks to transcend it entirely.

The Buddhist Second Noble Truth locates the origin of suffering in craving (tanha), rooted in ignorance of the three marks of existence: impermanence (anicca), suffering/unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and no-self (anatta). 

Because all things are conditioned and empty of inherent self, clinging to them inevitably produces suffering.

Psychologist Jordan Peterson has said "there's no difference between being concerned with yourself and being miserable."

That captures much of the Buddhist approach. 

Both traditions insist that suffering is universal and must be faced honestly rather than avoided; both cultivate compassion for all who suffer.

Both emphasize ethical living and mental discipline as essential responses. 

Both promise a final state free from suffering (heaven or nirvana). But it is the understanding of suffering "in the here and now" that is different. 

For the Buddhist, suffering has no divine author or redemptive purpose. It is simply a natural law to be understood and transcended.

Catholics take a "redemptive" view of suffering. Pain is not the issue. It is the potential meaning of the suffering, which can have redemptive value for other humans, in the same way that acts of service (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, visiting the sick) help other people. 

Not to get into the weeds theologically, but understanding one's suffering as a communion with God and other people (communion of saints) means that what you suffer, "united" with the suffering of Jesus and others, is a form of prayer for the well-being of others.