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Pain is a catalyst for action and
a key to awareness. It gets our attention and focuses us in ways
other techniques cannot do. There are
realizations from pain or that can be obtained through pain.
Pain has caused many individuals to come to realizations that they
seemed unable to obtain in other ways. In some cases individuals
have come to realizations directly from, and through, painful
experiences. The ultimate of these pain experience is probably a
painful death resulting in a near death experience. Many others have
utilized some discipline or practice that contained elements of
pains. Forms of yoga, martial arts and the like are some of the
examples where pain and the requirement to face and deal with the
pain are part of the discipline. Isolation and longing for another
and/or a beloved/Beloved, is one of the more common pains many have
faced.
Whether realized or not, longing is a form of isolation much more
powerful that removing oneself from society. Longing is often more
painful for one is the middle of a society yet alone and isolated.
But it is longing and the pain of this longing, especially longing
of the heart, that propels us into very deep awakening to what lies
in the heart. On this point, sexuality is an extremely important
issues. Most experience a longing in their heart for another. Most
see it as an individual of the opposite sex so the mental answer is
to go and find a sexual partner. In most societies this means
finding a spouse and getting married. Spiritual practices have even
been developed around the use of sexuality to assist in moving from
seeking a beloved, that sexual and physical partner, and rasing it
to a spiritual dimension to access the Beloved, that ultimate Love.
In some ways sexuality seems to have been created to exasperate the
pain of longing of the heart. Yet when most seek to alleviate the
pain through sex they get stuck in the sexuality and what it
creates. Hence the recommendation to become celibate in many
traditions that seek to transcend the physical and/or obtain
spiritual enlightenment.
Pain does awaken consciousness. So, because individuals have
realized that pain can be enlightening, there have been practices
that embrace pain. Many have sought to use pain to awaken to what
people consider higher realms of consciousness and/or to transcend
the physical condition and/or enter heaven. The fact that pain is a
key to awareness and one can potentially feel pain when they enter a
discipline to expand beyond themselves has greatly mislead to a
gross misapplication of pain. There has been the application of pain
through discipline in the form of causing pain or applying pain as
prevalent in the middle ages. Or, there are disciplines in the from
of controlling the body such as enduring pain and in many yogic and
spiritual exercises to achieve awakening and/or what some have
termed “salvation” Many seen the physical condition as the cause of
pain and that we need to obtain freedom of the body and release of
the conditions of the body and/or physical plane. Some even think
that if one is in physical pain there is a greater incentive to
transcend the body and embrace the spiritual. But nothing can be
father from the truth The pain itself is not what awakens. To endure
pain masks its value. The value of pain is that the pain tells us
where to begin to look. It tells us to awake up and become that
observer.
There is a warped logic which thinks, "If pain can be
enlightening, then, if I create pain, I can use that pain to become
enlightened and I can use it as a catalyst to transcend the body."
Disciplines have been set up that are unnecessarily painful.
Many have come to think the a discipline that is painful is what is
necessary to learn that consciousness is not the body and become
enlightened.
Yet few realize
the ultimate pain we face will never really go away no matter
what realm of existence we enter. There is a form of pain that will
always be there. It is what fuels Creation. If we don’t face and
understand how to use it, pain will rule our life. What needs to
be understood is that the pain that needs to be addressed will arise
of its own nature when it needs to be addressed. We need to
understand the pain we experience and see how and why we are create
an experience of pain.
Now you can accelerate the pain that needs to arise by developing a
practice that allows one explore their attachments, but the practice
itself need not be painful. One only has to look at the pain that
arises naturally within our being as we experience creation, or the
pain arises naturally to a situation or simulation such as a
metatheater that you create to see what attachments you may
have.
However our problem is that normally we numb the pain before we
sufficient explore it. It is not about enduring pain and address the
pain we feel. It is to To look into the source ane
origins of the pain. To look at the source of the pain one only
needs to be aware and mindful of the pain. Be mindful and aware of
where it lies and exactly what type and kind of pain it is, before
one numbs the pain in some way. One of course need to follow the
pain and see how it response over time. There is no need
to create it, unless you of course want to do so.
It is to be noted that to deal with pain, trust in oneself and the
universe is an ability that we must be develop. Within our creative
endeavors, pain may occur at a location different than it source.
That is we may stumble across things to which we are attached have
no conscious awareness that we are attached. But we must trust
ourselves and the universe that we can use the pain to find the
attachment. Pain be a vehicle for enlightenment and awareness and it
can be used to find our attachments. But we must trust that the pain
will not destroy us but can be effectively used as the gift that it
is.
Facing the fire of pain can be quite challenging. Yet it is in
facing pain and learning how to use the
gift of pain, we find the
true freedom we seek.
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