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The end of pain
Simonthepilgrim
Veteran
I knoiw that I would value other people's comments on today's Daily Dharma Drop:
Friends:
The ability to Feel Pain ceases in the 1st Jhâna!
The Blessed Buddha once said:
Here, Bhikkhus, while a Bhikkhu is dwelling diligent, enthusiastic, &
resolute, there arises in him the ability to feel pain. He understands
thus: There has arisen in me an ability to feel pain. That has a cause,
a source, a causal condition. It is impossible for that ability to feel
pain to arise without a cause, without a source, without a condition.
He thereby understands the ability to feel pain; he understands the
causal origin of the ability to feel pain; he also understands the very
ceasing of the ability to feel pain; & he understands when the ability
to feel pain ceases without any remaining trace...
And where, Bhikkhus & Friends does the arisen ability to feel pain
cease without remains? Here, Bhikkhus, aloof & above of any lust,
quite secluded from any sense desire, thus protected from every
disadvantageous mental state, one enters & dwells in the 1st Jhana
mental absorption; full of joy & pleasure born of solitude, joined &
fused with single-pointed directed thought & sustained thinking....
It is right there that the arisen ability to feel pain ceases without
remainder. This, friends, is thus a Bhikkhu who has understood the
ceasing of the ability to feel pain! He directs his mind accordingly!
More on ending Pain:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II...sical_Pain.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II...ain_Itself.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II...ng_is_Pain.htm
Source (edited extract):
The Grouped Sayings of the Buddha. Samyutta Nikaya.
Book [V:213] section 48: The Abilities. 36: Irregular Order ...
Friendship is the Greatest
Bhikkhu Samahita Ceylon
http://What-Buddha-Said.net
http://groups.google.com/group/Buddha-Direct
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/What_Buddha_Said
Stopping of all Physical Pain!
0
Comments
Pain is our body telling us that whatever we are doing, it just doesn't like it.
It seems to me that there is a contemporary tendency to imagine that Buddhism is some sort of Stoicism, whereas the Buddha makes it abundantly clear that following the Path and studying the jhanas lead to the ending of the suffering that is inherent in samsara. This is not the same as neurological damage, as KoB points out. After all, the texts make it clear that, once attained, the jhanas are 'states' in and out of which we can move at will.
Is our reluctance, perhaps, based on a modern, Western view that 'there is no journey', meaning, I fear, a sort of Quietism? The notion of stages along the way seems to be unappealing to many people because they read it as 'elitist'. To me, it is no more elitist than being able to read the milestones along the road: it is good to know where we are because, without that, how do we know if we are heading in the right direction?
It is when we come to notions such as this that we must make serious mental adjustments and try to set aside what we think we already understand. It is also where translation fails us.
metta
_/\_
_/\_
There was a faith-healer of Deal
Who said, "Although pain isn't real,
If I sit on a pin
And it punctures my skin,
I dislike what I fancy I feel."
If it is a question of a temporary absorbtion into certain exalted meditative states, then it is not at all difficult for me to imagine that no pain can be sensed during that time. Coming out of the state, pain will again be possible.
But if it is a question of a permanent end to pain, then I think the Buddhist teaching is that the Buddha experienced a lot of pain when he was violently sick before his "Total Extinction". But he didn`t suffer. He had already extinguished suffering with his enlightenment. He extinguished all pain only at his death.
Both pleasure and pain are dependently co-arisen, each arising due to various causes and conditions (SN 12.25). When pain ceases in jhana, it does so because the conditions for the arising of pain are temporarily subdued. Pain is not ended with the attainment of the first jhana, enen though one may be free from it for an extended amount of time after emerging from meditative absorption. Pain only ceases forever with the final pasing away of an arahant, because as SN 12.25 states, one of the prerequisites for pleasure and pain is having a body.
There is also a distinction made between physical pain and mental pain. According to SN 36.6, a noble disciple who experiences painful bodily feelings will not experience mental anguish due to the fact that, "Having been touched by that painful feeling, he does not resist (and resent) it. Hence, in him no underlying tendency of resistance against that painful feeling comes to underlie (his mind)... He knows, according to facts, the arising and ending of those feelings, and the gratification, the danger and the escape connected with these feelings."
Sincerely,
Jason
The two arrows....yes...?
One example found in the Pali Canon of the Buddha and his ability to experience physical pain is the time when his cousin, Devadatta, tries to kill the Buddha by hurling a rock down a mountainside. The rock is crushed, and so misses the Buddha, but sends out a splinter that pierces the Buddha's foot, drawing blood. The bodily feelings that he experienced were described as painful, fierce, sharp, wracking, repellent, and disagreeable, yet he endured them mindful, alert, and unperturbed. A couple of suttas I can find online that mention this event are SN 1.38 and SN 4.13.
Sincerely,
Jason
Yes, exactly.
Jason
So I brought the subject up with my doctor. I asked him how the swelling and redness around the injury site on my back could be imaginary and he explained that when chronic pain is discussed as being partly real pain and partly psychological, what the medical community is talking about is the person's psychological reaction to the pain and whether that person's attitudes toward it increases the pain level or not. It's not about part of the pain not being real but about not being physically measurable. I was relieved that the medical community wasn't dismissing my pain as partly unreal and I understood what they were talking about. It's just as Jason pointed out: This is exactly why I consider my pain to be such an excellent teacher. I would never have willingly trained my mind in the ways I have if I hadn't been forced to by the pain. I'm just too lazy. So the physical part of the pain for me has become an invaluable psychological training ground and although I'm only at the very start of my training I'm very grateful to have something pushing me towards mental development and although I usually "fail" to use the pain in the wisest ways at least I know I'll have more chances everyday to get it right. It's been amazing to learn and to really understand through experience that pain doesn't actually have to make you suffer.
I have mentioned this book before so I apologise for being repetitive...
in "Living in the Light of Death - On the art of being truly Alive" by Larry Rosenberg,
the author leads us through the 5 contemplations, the first three of which are -
That Ageing (1) Illness (2) and Death (3) are unavoidable.
In this book, he tackles head-on, the distressing problem of how we can deal with continuous debilitating pain and incorporating it into, and making it part of our practice.
Although I do not for one moment compare this level of pain to the trials and tribulations you find yourself faced with daily, Boo, I suffer from terrible cramp in my left foot and lower left leg, and it can cause me to leap out of bed in the night, with almost unbearable pain.... or at least, it used to....
Since reading this book, and attempting to implement the recommendations therein, whilst I cannot state with 100% accuracy that the pain from these attacks has lessened (though I think and feel as if they might have!) my attitude towards the contortions of my body has been modified, and I view them differently....
I think the 'hostility' one feels towards the pain increases our tension, thus giving the body two states to deal with; hence the pain seems worse. As I have learnt (and am still, forever learning!) to view the pain differently, and use a different, more positive mental approach, that hostile tension has lessened, and it bothers me less....
I newly urge my friends to try the book.
It's brill!
"The art of happiness - a handbook for Living"
which he wrote in close collaboration with HH the Dalai Lama.
"To diminish the suffering of Pain, we need to make the crucial distinction between the pain of PAIN, and the pain we create by thoughts about the pain. Fear, Anger, Loneliness and Helplessness are all mental and emotional responses that can intensify Pain."
Just thought it was a poignant coincidence, and so I thought I'd share....
I know a lot of people who live with constant pain. Some of them manage it quite well. Some of them don't.
The nurses at the hospital use a pain scale. "On a scale of one to ten, how bad is your pain?" It is a bit more complicated than that, but not much. The interesting thing is that the only thing they have to compare it to is your previous answer. Each person's pain is different.
Also, somewhere (and I really have to track this down) there was a pain study done by, I believe, Jon Kabat-Zinn. They stimulated pain in subjects (arms immersed in cold water) and had one group focus on finding their "happy place" away from the pain, and taught one group to focus ON the pain itself. Guess which group was better able to manage pain!
Until one day I'd finally had enough. I was sitting up in bed looking at my pile of useless self help books and I finally got angry and directed that anger toward the right place; me. I remember it vividly. I remember saying "That's it! Enough #@*&% suffering! No more! There are millions upon millions of people out there in the world living through horror and pain I couldn't even begin to comprehend and somehow they manage to put a smile on their faces. Somehow they manage to find happiness. That's what I'm going to do. I demand happiness, no matter what. I'm not going to waste another second making myself suffer. No more! I'm going to be happy whether I like it or not!" And that was the day I finally realized that pain doesn't have to make you suffer. They're two different things and they don't have to go hand in hand.
The next thing I did was look for role models I could follow. I thought to myself "Who are the happiest looking people in the world?" And the light went on in my mind and I thought "Buddhists!" At that moment, as dramatic as it sounds, everything changed. I mean everything. It was like my heart and mind started to open up, as if they (or it) had been curled up in self defensive balls and now they were opening up again and stretching out. It felt so good. There was tons of pain in my body (around an 8 on the pain scale. I use the scale too.) but it didn't actually hurt as much anymore. When my mind changed, the pain changed. It really was amazing. It felt like my mind was actually separating itself from the pain. My mind was totally unscathed. It was still clear and pure and strong just like it used to be. And it was happy. It felt like I had been forcibly suppressing its natural happiness and when I stopped it bounced right back like a rubber band. I'd always known everything depended upon the mind and I'd even experienced that truth a few times throughout my life. But this time it was so crystal clear because I was experiencing the happy peacefulness of my mind while paying attention to how it changed when I allowed it, how it went from miserable to happy in a split second. It sounds dramatic but it didn't feel dramatic. It just felt like the right decision was made and that was all. But it changed everything, my whole life, my path, my personality, my intentions, my relationship with life and pain and suffering. I finally saw how much of my suffering was self inflicted (about 90%, give or take) and how I'd been forcing myself to suffer. It was ridiculous. I felt ridiculous. Childish. Self cherishing. Immature. I laughed at my silly self, took refuge and it was off to the races! lol! It's still up and down sometimes but now it's mostly up. It's much easier to separate my ego from things now and that does away with so much of the suffering. The physical pain never made me suffer as much as my self cherishing did. Being under the influence of my ego is such a painful prison and when I let it go it's as if the prison doors have been flung open and I can come out into the sunshine and birdsong again.
I'll stop now. I guess I had some stuff to get off my chest, didn't I? lol!
Palzang
Yes, Brigid. Wonderful post. I love this kind of stuff.
metta
_/\_
I haven't heard from Jerbear in a very long time, Palzang. I've started emails to him a few times then decided not to send them in case he just wants to be left alone. I don't really know what to do. Maybe I'll just send him a very short one that doesn't require a response so he doesn't feel obligated to write back. I don't know. What do you guys think?
Palzang