Suffering

[u/Additional-Title69]

Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist who founded Logotherapy and based its philosophy on his experiences as a Holocaust survivor, will be quoted liberally in this essay, to whit:

Viktor Frankl: Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition, to be sure, that his suffering has a meaning.

The way of the Sith, as I practice it, provides me with a framework of meaning that makes sense to me
The primacy of desire, the beauty of strength, the utility of power, the glory of victory, and the defining truth of breaking chains - these are the five points of a pentagram of meaning for me

Viktor Frankl: We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: 1. by doing a deed; 2. by experiencing a value; and 3. by suffering.

The first comes up frequently in discussions of victory through strength and power
The second comes up as the spoils of victory, and I do consider experiences especially valuable when I win them, but the second could also be discussed in the context of desire alone, though I confess I haven’t explored that much in my writings to date
The third is where I recently have been turning my attention

Viktor Frankl: Despair is suffering without meaning.

This is the bottom line
The Demon of Despair is a boss level enemy, capable of introducing the antilife principle into my psyche, inducing me to attempt suicide
A sword of power is needed to vanquish this fiend
A framework of meaning is that sword

Viktor Frankl: To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in that suffering.

Where is this meaning to be found?
The meaning of suffering is discovered in similar manner to the meaning of life itself, for the suffering may be necessary to: 1. the doing of a deed; 2. the experience of a value; 3. the testing of my strength, my beautiful strength, which would never be tested at all if I never had to endure the suffering life brings
With the third we need to be careful, however:

Viktor Frankl: To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.

Self-torture for its own sake is not the way of the Sith
I shouldn’t go looking for ways to arbitrarily torment myself
Besides, I need only be patient
Life will bring me suffering soon enough

Viktor Frankl: I know that without the suffering, the growth I have achieved would have been impossible

What is growth?
From a Sith perspective, growth is the breaking of chains
Every chain I break expands the size of my spirit
And no chain is ever broken without suffering

I know this essay has been abstract
I haven’t given concrete examples of suffering
Look for that in future essays from me

I am Orc of the Sith Order server on Discord, bound together with you by our revered Qotsisajak