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Understanding pain
The gift in
pain
Pain is a
messenger If you
think about it, for most of us, pain always appears to be caused by
something external to our being and is something that is done to us.
Even if the pain originates within our body such as cramps or a
muscle ache of some type, we perceive it impinging or invading us in
some fashion and we desire it to leave the body. We hear such
comment as “I wish this pain would leave or go away” as if it came
from somewhere external. There seemed to be an undertone that the
pain does not belong in the body. Rather it is seen being
caused from something outside the body and something outside of our
being. When we look at the physical process of pain much of this
thinking appears to be true. There always seems to be a cause we can
point to and say “This is the reasons I have pain.” So, we look for
medications and treatments to relieve us of the pain. Most are
almost willing to pay any price for someone to relieve them of their
pain if our medications don’t work.
We ask, “Why is there pain?” but do we really want to hear the
answer? Rather there is the need not to know the real origin of pain
for in knowing comes responsibility to act on what is known. We
prefer to just have the pain taken away and numbing it or doing
something to alleviate. That is is much easier than understanding it
origins and dealing with it at its root.
There are two types of pain that we experience which at first glance
seem very different. The first type is the physical pain of the body
that which come through the physical pain sensors of the body. The
second type of pain is pain which does not depend on the pain
sensors. This second type of pain is best described as the pain of
consciousness where the pain of consciousness is what arises totally
within one’s being and is in no way tied to an external physical
stimulus impinging on the body.
This second type of pain arises from within our being and can be a
non-physical pain or a physical pain which has no apparent physical
origin. For example consider the amputee who still feel a pain in
the limb that has been amputated. Or, you love an individual but you
can’t get their attention so you experience a pain or agony within
your being. The occasion may be external, that is, the person you
want in your life, but nothing is directly impinging on your body to
cause the pain.
Both types of pain function to tell us something is being harmed
and/or something is not working. If you truly study physical pain
and ask, “Why is there pain?” you will come to see that pain is a
gift in that it warns you when damage is occurring, or there is the
potential for damage to occur, to some aspect of your being. The
lesson of the physical experience and the function of pain is to
teach us or get us to a point to realize that something is being
harmed at some level.
The gift in pain
(Top)
To understand how pain warns us of harm, it is
appropriate to look at the mechanism of physical pain. Physical pain
uses the same system as any physical sensation,. There is a sensor,
a transmission line to the brain and an experience of the energy
transmitted in the brain. Without physical pain or the loss of the
feeling sensation of pain, we are not aware of the conditions that
damage the body. For example, leprosy is a condition that affects
the nerve transmission and the pain signals are blocked. The problem
with leprosy is that without the awareness of pain because the
transmission line is shut down, the body tissue becomes damaged. For
example, look at the normal abrasion of skin or a cut. Without the
ability to sense the pain one does not pull away from what is
causing the damage. The damaged tissues is then further damaged
beyond what would normally cause pain and allow one to pull away.
The damaged tissue then becomes susceptible to infection. Again,
without feeling the pain as a result of the infection one does not
know to dress the wound. In knowing the horrific body damage that
leprosy can cause because the pain sensation is lost, one come to
realize the importance of pain in protecting the individual and the
gift inherent in pain. Within an understanding of pain, one will
find the gift that pain is capable of giving goes well beyond
warning of harm to the body.
Pain is a messenger
(Top)
So, pain in its simplest expression is very straight
forward. The first awareness about pain is that it as messenger.
Pain at any level is there to tell you when something is harmful or
potentially harmful to the limit that you have choose to contain
your being. One of the more simpler physical examples is to put your
finger on a hot stove. You feel pain and your body wisdom and the
construction of the automatic response causes you to immediately
withdraw from that which is causing the pain. Similarly, if you wear
new shoes that are too tight, over time you foot becomes sore and
your body wisdom tells you to change your shoes. In either case,
your body has approached the limits of its endurance. The pain is
present and you respond to that pain even before you can think about
what is happening. Pain is a mechanism your body uses to tell you
something can be potentially injurious to your well being.
Without pain your body would not be warned of danger. If there is
physical pain present, then at some level some aspect of your body
has the potential of being harmed or is being harmed. However we
come to associate the hot stove, or rather hot objects, as causing
the pain. But in reality hot objects do not cause pain. Rather it is
our body’s ability to response or not respond to the energy and
mind's interpretation of that energy to know to response which
causes pain such that the body knows something is harmful to the
body as the body is constructed. With proper training and
conditioning, or a proper intervention such a hypnosis or certain
chemicals, esoteric yogic training and the like, one can learn to
tolerate things that are at first unimaginable. If we are within our
ability to response to a situation, we will not feel pain. We can
change our being to respond differently to the conditions that
causes pain to respond to that we could previously not tolerate.
Knowing that pain is a messenger that warns us that harm is being
done, or potentially being done, at some level of being and it is a
warning to us that something is being taken past it limits of
endurance, we are faced with two issues. One is the origins of the
non-physical pain we feel. In this cases the question is, ‘What is
ultimately being harmed in the pain of consciousness?” What is being
harmed when we feel a deep emotional pain or a deep pain of not
having something that we desire and we long to obtain it in our
life? The other issue is what about the physical pain we face that
has no seeable or identifiable cause? There are the myriad types of
pain that don’t seem to be so straight forward to this simple
analysis above as to how we are exceeding the a limit of endurance
at some level of our being. There is the pain that come to you
because a part of your body just stops functioning properly. We
assume the pain results from the disfunctional body part rather than
considering, at some level of our being, our endurance is being
exceeded or we have passed some limit or boundary within our being.
Similar, we associate getting a contagious illness from an external
cause as opposed to something being exceeded within our own being
that allows the pathogen to cause the illness. Of course, this list
can go on and on. However, if you can get past the pain itself and
look at it origins you will find its purpose is the same at any
level. It is a warning, a messenger, an alarm.
What is difficult for most to accept is that pain represents one’s
best interest and at any, and all levels of our being, (spiritual,
mental, emotional or physical). It is only a warning that something
is potentially harmful to our being. Ultimately the pain can be
related to the fact we are approaching the limit of endurance of a
truth of our being.
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