Are pain and suffering positive values, to be regarded as opportunities to display virtue and in accordance to the nature of humanity, and is the avoidance of pain and the pursuit of pleasure a vice?
I think – in my two months’ study of Buddhism – that pain and suffering just are. They don’t have intrinsic value but are part of the human condition that we have to accept. On the other hand, me believes that knowing that and accepting doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong in avoiding some of it if you can.