Furthermore, the good qualities of suffering are that you
Dispel arrogance with disenchantment,
Develop compassion for the beings of cyclic existence,
Carefully avoid sin [or misgivings], and delight in virtue.– Shantideva Bodhisattva
(Engaging In The Bodhisattva Deeds)
Suffering has five good qualities: [1] Spurring to liberation: If you had no suffering, you would not develop the determination to be free of it. [2] Dispelling arrogance: When suffering strikes you, it reduces your superiority. [3] Causing shunning of misgivings: When you experience very painful feelings, they arise from non-virtue, so if you do not want these effects, you must avoid their causes. [4] Causing cultivation of virtue: When you are tormented with suffering, you desire happiness, and once you want it, you must cultivate the virtue that causes it. [5] Producing compassion for all in cyclic existence: After you have assessed your own situation, you think, ‘Other beings suffer like this.’
The Great Treatise On The Stages Of The Path To Enlightenment Volume 2
(Lam Rim Chen Mo)
Tsong-Kha-Pa
The Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee
Joshua W.C. Cutler, Editor-in-Chief, Guy Newland, Editor
(slightly paraphrased)
