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The natures of pain and suffering: buddhism connect
Jeffrey
Veteran
Buddhism Connect: Email Teachings
Question and answers with Lama Shenpen Hookham
The difference between pain and suffering
Summary: Pain is hard to bear when we believe it to be a fixed and solid thing. But when we look at it we see that it moves and changes, and then it becomes less of a problem. As we follow our spiritual path, we train in seeing the true nature of reality, including pain, and lose the sense of being trapped inside suffering.
A student asks:
I have a question about pain. I notice that the pain I experience moves. It moves from place to place in my body and it moves back and forth between mind, where I experience it as anxiety, and body, where I experience it as physical pain. A Buddhist friend of mine said that the significance of this moving is that things are not as solid as we think they are. Is this true?
Lama Shenpen replies:
It is isn’t it? If the pain and suffering was a solid identifiable entity that had to be grabbed hold of in order to get rid of it, then the fact it moved about between mind and body would be a problem. But if it’s not a solid and identifiable entity like that, if it’s all much more fluid than that, maybe we could stop trying to grab hold of it as one solid identifiable entity that we have got to somehow get rid of. Maybe if we stayed with the way it changes moment by moment and the way it is so hard to pin down as this or that, we would lose that sense of being trapped inside the suffering and then maybe we would lose the sense that suffering was a problem and then somehow it wouldn’t be suffering anymore and yet we never got rid of it - we didn’t even try to get rid of it!
Student:
If so, could I use this fact to work with pain somehow or is that a fruitless effort.
Lama Shenpen:
Maybe what I just said answers this.
Student:
I can see the difference between pain and suffering now. Is there any use in trying to relieve the pain or is our best course to stay open to it?
Lama Shenpen:
At this point I think you can answer this yourself. We spend our whole lives finding ways of avoiding pain and it seems to be OK doesn’t it? We give ourselves a chance by being a bit easy on ourselves. If we are cold we put on clothes, if we are hungry we eat and so on. If we are ill we look for remedies, what is wrong with that? Nevertheless there is no guarantee that there will always be remedies for our problems, so it’s important to train in whatever way we can for that eventuality. It is not a matter of someone saying ‘It is OK to take pain killers’. It is for us to decide whether that is how best to train to arrive at the place where we no longer fear pain and loss.
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Comments
I never invited this headache nor was it really cause by external circumstance. It was a projection forced upon me by past actions.
Then i thought about trungpa and how he totally respected whatever appeared.
The headache gave me motivation to practice ethics and kindness more often. Not only that i thought about all the suffering beings who suffered from headaches.
Slowly i am allowing suffering into my life. In a way it keeps me grounded in practice and helps me understand the beings around me.
We are all in this together aren't we? For all beings i desire to attain peace so that i can help them. But even the suffering is welcomed.
Not sure what i an trying to share but your post made me feel as such. This is the human package right?
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Vimalakirti