“Conscious or Intentional Suffering is a conscious and intentional willingness to not only face into one’s own specific pain and suffering, but also the willingness to help shoulder the burden of other people’s pain and suffering. This has nothing to do with martyrdom or victimhood. Its capacity is borne out of a felt sense of connection with the whole—with all human beings, all sentient beings, and the very planet herself. Intentional Suffering finds expression as an energetic reality much more than just an idea or belief or sentiment.”

Willian Redfield , 2020. Lent Retreat 2020, Wednesday April 22.

Intentional suffering is the act of struggling against automatism such as daydreaming, pleasure, food (eating for reasons other than real hunger), etc. In Gurdjieff’s book Beelzebub’s Tales he states that “the greatest ‘intentional suffering’ can be obtained in our presences by compelling ourselves to endure the displeasing manifestations of others toward ourselves”^[23]

23  G.I. Gurdjieff (1950). Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, pg 242