Is Suffering Beneficial?

Where to look for me if I don't show up

Thought I would try a new approach while continuing to hatchet through my attachments.  Meditate in the ashram for a few hours and then go for a walk--enter the walk in a more open state than from my room.  I did find a cool new place to go walking up in the hills--clean, fresh, and quiet.  Only one hour by foot to get there.  Walking through the matrix of human chaos was more challenging after leaving from the ashram.  It sort of had the reverse effect I had hoped for, so I was sorting through how much pain does one need to keep diving through as part of the process.  Found this in today's Bowl of Saki.  Something to consider and to keep letting go of my mental illusion of reality. (I have to admit that looking at the pictures sent to Gurudev of beautiful Sonoma/Shasta County created a strong ripple through me.  Sigh...)

Question: Is suffering beneficial?

Answer: Suffering is always a blessing. If it is for higher ideas, for God, for an ideal, it takes a person at once to the highest heaven. If it is for lower ideas, for the ego, for pride, for possessions, it takes a person to the lowest depth of hell. But there, after much suffering, after a long, long time, he loses these ideas and is purified. That is why the Christian religion shows the symbol of the cross, of suffering. How high our ideal may be, how low our ideal may be, in the end each pain has its prize.