Page 264 - Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

Hu ma n ExPE ri En cEs: HE a l t H , HE a l in g , a n d C ar i t a s N ur s iN g
humanity, we become more humane, compassionate, wise and heal-
ing in our work and world. Our task as health and caring-healing pro-
fessionals is to realize that in both our science worlds, as well as our
practice world, our work and jobs have been too narrow for the deep
human nature of the work that we really are confronted with in our
caring-healing relationships with self, others and our universe. A real-
ity to live is to find the still point in the midst of the law of constant
change; to find the abiding peace and presence of divine intelligence, a
universal field of Love that transcends all the felt change that we solid-
ify and freeze in our experience, contributing to more pain, more suf-
fering. But in the deeper/wisdom understanding and experiencing that
can take us beyond-suffering, we suddenly realize that there is a marked
difference between pain with suffering and pain without suffering. It
is how we perceive and allow the impermanence to move through us,
not clinging, freezing, and fixing the temporary condition or circum-
stance in our mind, our bodies, emotions, or even our hearts.
In the end, we are always “in training” and if and when we prac-
tice this understanding and acceptance of suffering, we learn to trans-
form that suffering into hope, love and deep compassion (Thich Nhat
Hanh 2003). As Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us, the foundation of hope,
love, and compassion is already there in our hearts and minds, await-
ing our entering this new place of consciousness and learning to dwell
there, thus transforming suffering into a deeper level of living.

sufferiNg
One way is to grasp the reality of suffering and learn at a personal level
how new insights can change our views, if not transform our views
of life. This change happened to me at a personal experiential level
when I had my eye injury and was experiencing acute and unbearable
pain at the time. I learned the difference between having pain with
suffering and having pain without suffering. I learned this through the
practice of deep meditation whereby I was able to witness my pain
and watch it as a continuous movement-of-energy, rising up and fall-
ing away; it was when I resisted the pain and solidified or fixed it that
it congealed, so to speak, and became more painful and brought more
suffering, both physically and emotionally. So, at a physical level of

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