Stephen Colbert, the comedian and late-night host, once reflected that he had learned to “love the thing that I most wish had not happened,” asking whether even what we call punishments might, in some sense, be gifts. His words carry a difficult pill to swallow: that to be grateful for existence is to accept all of it. The good and the bad.

What we call suffering is not “punishment” in any ultimate sense, but part of a lawful unfolding. The yogi points to the great principle of cause and effect, karma, as the natural working out of growth. Life is ordered, purposeful, and deeply interconnected. Life itself is the gift—and everything within it, even the hardest moments, participates in the soul’s long journey toward realization. The soul grows through experience. What we call suffering is part of the gradual unfolding of consciousness, the working out of our own development.