Conversations on Perennial Wisdom

The audio file attached here is the first part of a series of conversations prepared at the suggestion, and through the initiative and cooperation, of Ms Maryam Foroumand, a psychologist living in Virginia in the United States who works in the field of Life Coaching—the development of life skills for functioning more successfully and overcoming obstacles in life.

This series of conversations, structured in a question-and-answer format, focuses on fundamental concepts that I have brought together under the title of perennial wisdom (Perennial Philosophy / Primordial Wisdom). The first instalment of this series, which we currently intend to continue, is centred on the concept of “suffering.”

Ms Foroumand's opening question focuses on the emphasis I have placed throughout my work on accepting the suffering of life as the first step towards insight and growth. Her question contains the following elements:

What place does suffering have in our learning on the path towards individuation?

Is suffering alone necessary for human growth? Why is there so much emphasis on the role of suffering—and even a kind of sanctification of it—in Jungian psychology and among some existentialist philosophers?

Do we learn and grow only through suffering, or can we also learn through pleasure?

What place does suffering have in our learning?

In the conversation that follows, over approximately twenty minutes, I try, to the best of my ability, to respond to these questions.

I am sincerely grateful to Ms Foroumand for her thoughtful and carefully chosen decision to begin these conversations with the subject of suffering. I hope their continuation will offer an opportunity to articulate, and bring into the light of awareness, some of the most fundamental concepts of life—concepts whose clearer understanding may first transform our personal world and then the wider world.

Aydin Areta

https://youtu.be/p7LhSjstZvw