There is a pervasive idea that suffering is currency, that suffering has value, and that it has a price that can be exchanged for actual tangible items of value. We see this play out in courtrooms all over the world every day where someone is awarded a monetary equivalent for pain and suffering. Where there is a direct linkage between a perpetrator and a victim, this makes some sense. Suffering is also imposed on perpetrators in a misguided effort to “even the score,” as in prison sentences. Again, the idea is that suffering has compensatory value. Does suffering have any value in the eyes of the Divine? Is there a suffering scorekeeper out there? Can we purchase redemption, enlightenment, or favor, exclusively via raw suffering without any requisite growth in wisdom? What can Creator tell us?

It is certainly the case that suffering entails a cost and often a quite significant and severe one. This could be loss of time, loss of productivity and advancement in life, loss of status, privilege, economic security, even personal freedom, and then there is freedom from pain, physical pain, emotional pain and anguish, on and on, the many slings and arrows of life. The things done to a person by themselves and others create innumerable circumstances and opportunities for mischief, if not mayhem, all of which take a toll. So to say they are simply an idea, a concept, something divorced from physical consequences altogether, is unworkable from the human perspective because you are enmeshed in the physical plane, awash in negative energies of all kinds, and quite vulnerable to a worsening of things and, should that happen, you will pay dearly with suffering. To avoid that often takes means that could well be costly, to hire bodyguards, to live in a better part of town, to build fences around one's homestead to keep out evildoers, and so on, not to mention the costs of getting specialized care if one is injured or impaired, or requiring prolonged hospitalization and then rehabilitation to recover from grievous harm done by a perpetrator. So the list is endless of things that can go wrong for varied reasons and the reality is there will be something carved out of your life if you suffer, it will be a lost opportunity to do something better. If nothing else, this is undeniable and can be measured quite precisely in terms of energy, both of a positive or negative nature. This the Law of Karma does with exquisite precision, it is the toll keeper, so to speak, noting when something is subtracted from your life or someone else's at your doing or participation, perhaps with others in a kind of group assault of some kind. This could be people planning takeover of a company, outing their boss to get them fired for selfish reasons, simply because of some dislike or disapproval of their politics or perceived unworthiness to be in a position of greater power and control. The many things that tempt people to cross the line into wrongdoing will count against them energetically. This, the Law of Karma notes with great accuracy. So the inclination of humans to want compensation for harm done, and to equate wrongdoing with a kind of needed sacrifice and restitution on the part of the perpetrator, if only to serve time in jail as a substitute for the suffering they caused others, is an attempt, at least, to balance the books. This is all based on ignorance, not knowing the Law of Karma is always operating and will take care of it. So, in the absence of understanding this precise clockwork mechanism for restoring and rebalancing energetic disarray, they will seek a more down-to-earth retribution. This sometimes is overdone, misapplied, and too crude an instrument to truly match the deficit in question and effect a restoration that brings with it greater understanding and wisdom by the parties involved—that is an essential component of true and complete healing. So the divine perspective is the application of a mechanism to effect a rebalancing energetically, but with the learning of a life lesson from the experience so all involved will be smarter and wiser, and more likely to do better in the future, to avoid temptation to exploit others on the part of a perpetrator, and to be stronger, more resilient, better prepared, and more effective in countering opposition, so as to avoid being taken advantage of and leaving oneself vulnerable through ignorance or neglect.