Question: I suffer and thank the Creator for my pain and suffering. Is this the right approach?
Answer: If a person truly can thank the Creator [1], this is the right approach because if he thanks the Creator for awakening the suffering [2] in him that directs him toward the goal [3] correctly, he must feel sweetness in this suffering. According to studies by doctors and biologists, the feeling of suffering or pleasure basically gives the same result because the same process occurs in the brain.
Question: I don’t understand. How is it possible to be thankful for suffering? After all, this is masochism.
Answer: The difference is that I separate the thought and purpose of the suffering from how I am feeling it. It is just as I agree to a painful operation and simultaneously thank the doctors for freeing me from the disease. We see that in our world it is necessary to settle accounts and pay for everything through effort, energy, and suffering.
However, a Kabbalist sees the goal, why he is suffering. So, he no longer considers it to be suffering. He understands that suffering helps him become free of his egoistic nature, but as long as he is on the way toward leaving it, he suffers.
[176910]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/3/16
Related Material:
The Devious Sweetness Of Pain [4]
Is Thanking For the Suffering Greater Than For the Good? [5]
The Creator Does Not Need Our Suffering [6]