Question: Can suffering be expressed in a higher form?

Sri Chinmoy: Yes, your suffering can take a higher form. But when it is in a higher form it is not suffering as such; it is an illumining and fulfilling experience. We can take two attitudes toward our suffering. One attitude is to feel that the suffering is retribution for something we have done wrong. The other attitude is to feel that something is being done in and through us for a higher purpose. If we can feel that our so-called suffering is for a higher purpose, then we see it as an experience that can and should be expressed in a higher form. At that time it does not remain suffering at all; it does not even remain a mere experience. It becomes instead an expression of self-illumining and self-fulfilling delight.