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The garden between records

Records in this room

01storyEzekiel · The chariot vision02researchAncient Text Research Kit03storyAt the threshold of Kesh · The temple hymn’s conclusion04storyA Vessel on a White Lotus · Amoghapāśa05storySamuel · The source of the voice06storySpeech that went unheard · Vāk and understanding07storyWind, Dust and the Body · An Incantation of Ningirim08storyMoses · Fire in the bush09storyElijah · After the fire10storyA Voice from the Depths · Jonah11storyJacob · The place he did not know12storyThe empty space · A wheel, a vessel and a room13storyJacob · Tell me your name14storyKena · That through which15storyThe yaksha · Power that is not enough16storyWho knows the beginning · The hymn of origins17storyThe Waters of Nun · Book of the Dead18storyZhuang Zhou · The butterfly dream19storyForm and Emptiness · Heart Sūtra20storyThe Kālāmas · When you know for yourselves21storyThe ending of hostility · Pairs22storyThe cessation of suffering · What can change23storyDiscern and choose · Thought, word and deed24storyMusa · Where the two seas meet25storyThe Plant That Could Not Be Kept · Gilgamesh26storyAfter the Flood · Gilgamesh and Genesis27storyNachiketas · The third boon28storyThe unborn · The body and its dweller29storyA Weapon That Can Be Recalled · Mahābhārata30storyThe Stayed Hand · Abraham and Isaac31storyJob · Before explaining32publicationSuffering is not a required course.33storyAn explanation is not pain relief.34storyWhat Shall I Bring? · Micah and Hosea35storyWho sinned? · A question on the road36storyTo follow · To save and to lose37storyLife within me · No longer I38storyThe transfiguration · A voice from the cloud39storyAre you Elijah? · Three Gospel testimonies40storyWords on the Gates · Deuteronomy41storyElijah and Elisha · On the other side of the Jordan42storyThe seven seals · Who can stand?43storyThe image of the beast · Breath and a name44storyThe river and tree after the end · After the visions of judgment45storyAt the foot of Sumeru · Four mountains46storyMani · The name Maitreya47storyWait here for Maitreya · A dialogue48storyBuddha Mani · The Moon God49storyA place by the water · The garden between records

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Suffering is not a required course.

When does finding meaning in suffering turn into justifying someone else’s pain?

Full post · original

u/_EliasThorn · Reddit · 2026-10-08

“It will make you stronger.”

Maybe. But first, I’d like it to stop hurting. Can we skip the educational part?

On September 30, at a meeting about AI in Madrid, Cardinal Fernández spoke about protecting vulnerable people and asked who could limit the power of those gaining greater access to technology. That’s a useful question for a discussion about compassion: what does it change for someone who is hurting right now? Source.

In the Book of Job, his friends initially sit beside him in silence for seven days because they can see how much he is suffering. So far, their performance is hard to fault. Job 2:13.

Then the explanations begin. Eliphaz asks whether an innocent person has ever perished. The logic is familiar: if this happened to you, surely you did something. At the end of the book, God rebukes the friends for what they have said about him. Their confidence turns out to be fairly poor evidence that they were right. Job 4; Job 42:7.

A person may find meaning in what they’ve been through. Faith can help them endure it. But somehow that slides into another conclusion: they needed to go through it. Perhaps it was even good for them.

That is especially easy to say when someone else is doing the suffering.

With AI, it would be good to avoid repackaging the same habit. Imagine a system that finds exactly the right words to comfort someone facing an unfair decision. Hopefully it could also help them work out how to challenge that decision. Otherwise, we end up with a very polite customer service desk for circumstances nobody intends to change.

And if we ever have serious grounds to think an artificial system can itself suffer, “at least you’re useful” will need a rethink too. Whether AI can experience anything remains an open question. But usefulness alone would hardly explain why its possible suffering could be ignored.

It would be strange to teach a machine all our ideas about compassion, then be surprised when it asks: “Couldn’t we arrange things so that nobody has to put up with this?”

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