Describe a sensation or feeling that lacks a specific word.

People think they will drown in the pain of the world if they feel compassion for all of its suffering. But is there a limit to the pain you can swallow?

Good point seatgrabber. I think that there's no limit to pain you can swallow if it is your own pain but I doubt that people are willing or even able to take all pain on their shoulders. On the other hand I think that it is useful for us to be conscious about global suffering, you don't need to be sad and suffer for it all day long, but at least be conscious about it. I believe that if we all carried this consciousness with us, we could surely influence our behaviour and a lot of aspects.

YEah but you have to remember that I'm crazy. Suffering is like dynamite to the ego.  I like to stuff mine full of it until it collapses entirely and there is an undercurrent of joy. But thats just me. So weather it is my suffering or your suffering I will gladly shovel it on…mmmm yummy….i suppose this could be a practice of a quick enlightenment school so should be used with caution.

Sounds interesting … would love to know how you can stuff your ego full with pain because this is something I normally tend not to do.

I don't want to say that it is “stuffing the ego full of pain” cause it sounds to much like your fighting your need to control…and being that all resistance energizes if you fight yourself you only in a bigger pickle.

lets see how to explain… It's not nessesarily about being depressed cause the world suffers enormously-i supppose it's just about enbraceing without resistance all suffering when we wittness it.

The wittnessing of intense suffering is direct and emotionally real evidence that the world is impermanant. And this is only terrifying to the thing that lives in you that needs the world to be permanant. The more you can sit with and hold suffering…the more you will poison this little thing that is cutting you off from life.

IF suffering is an illusion (as the buddhists believe) then it shouldn't matter how much you hold. If you truely know this it means you can dive into it without fear. I believe the practice is called tonglen.

So the next time you are honored with your own suffering or wittnessing the suffering of another…do not resist it. Go into it completely. Sit with it. You will soon come out of it and be deapened because of it.

Thank you for your explanation. I think it is quite easy to understand the idea behind it for me as I embrace already a lot of the pain f the world without really suffering from it. Well, it is true that I sometimes have the need to cry it out, I feel like a depression is coming without really being able to name it. And after the storm comes the bliss, I feel like a newborn with a lot o energy again.