* Please note: the following story does not depict any actual persons or events!*
:-))
:-))
Q: I do wish you would let me know what is going on with the body, but
you seem to think it too unimportant to mention. I agree it isn't who
you are at all, but would like to know all the same.
C: Once
upon a time there was an old man in Oklahoma named charlie. At the end
of 2009 he was hit with a raft of symptoms; nearly unable to swallow, a lot of gas,
bloating, stomach pains, chest pains
and more. After over a year of many tests at the hospitals, and much
prodding, poking and medicating by the three best doctors in his town,
the symptoms continue to come and go. There are pains, certainly. There
is frustration that there appears to be no cure, of course. But charlie
knows he is not the body and so there is a backdrop of aware presence
and that is where his focus is. The old man is 74 now, and understands
the integration of life from a single cell that formed a body and its
opposite on the pendulum swings
of nature, dis-integration and returning to the elements, the
five-element dance of Life, that is in the process of removing the
appearance of a charlie from the great elegant play of
awareness-consciousness-peace. When charlie is asked "how are you" he
replies "I am fine. The bodymind machinery, though, is quite another
matter!" Thirteen months into this what "mostpeople" call "illness", he
remains as he always was, unchanged being-aware-here-now! He laughs and
cries, is happy and sad, is accepting and resistant, pissed about the
expenses of health care (co-pays mount up indeed) all within the
awareness of what is for all, being-just-that. So he tries his best to
ignore requests for the story of some "person" who is either in pain or
not, and tries (too often in vain) to point to the essential DISTINCTION
between "pain" and "suffering". However, once in a while the
awaring-awareness prompts a brain to spout through fingers tapping
little black squares
creating squiggles of black (or maybe dark blue) on white space. This is one of those times,
apparently!
The End.
_________________________________________________________
My beloved Friend,
I am asked about this from time to time. Not long ago I write a complete essay on this. Here is what came out:
A Previous Q: Dave and I enjoyed our day with you on Saturday. Thank you! Would you mind telling me, again...the difference between pain and suffering. Or when does pain become suffering? I think I remember you summing this up in just a few sentences.
C: Pain is a happening, and every bodymind will have pain from time to time. The suffering kicks in when that pain is "taken on board", ie considered by the false sense of self to be MY pain. Along with that there is the deep conviction that what is SHOULD NOT BE ie there should not be pain (which is the insanity of the false ego-entity because ,well, when there is pain there IS pain. It is the interpretation of pain as MINE and Should Not Be that is added to the simple experiencing. The Self is the Emptiness meaningless or Absolute ... Consciousness-at-rest ... AND the experience-ING ie relative or Consciousness-in-motion.
The core of suffering could be pointed to as "owning" ie making what is both "mine" and "wrong". It's the habitual false identification with the bodymind object whilst ignoring the Absolute Space-like Subject that brings and reinforces pain in a kind of vicious circle. As many have said a good "intervention" is a VERY simple pause-and-look with the question, "To whom is this experience appearing?" That fact that there is the perceiving of the experience shows that there is something that never changes ie the pure Subject which is the perceive-ING.
These concepts are pointing back to the sense of false identity that operates in deep background, invisibly, until it's really looked at directly, and simply: "To whom does this appearance (whatever appears) appear?" "To ME" is the blatantly obvious realization. Then realizing that this "me" word POINTS to The Absolute, there is a flash of nothingness that knows itself as The Infinite unbounded Self. "Repeated" flashes demolish the false sense of separation and ownership (or "authorship!). Not like a practice, just a looking in the instant when there is any sense that what is should not be asi it is.
Hope that helps.
Also re-read ............
Chapter10. Suffering Is Distinct From Pain
(From "I Am to I Am, With Love")
Suffering and pain are distinct. How?
Basically, pain is a signal that something is not working in the organism. Dogs have pain. Humans have pain. But the dog does not suffer — because the dog does not have a sense of being a separate psychological entity that takes ownership of the pain— and as the owner, that entity adds the secondary idea that the pain “should not be.”
The sage Nisargadatta Maharaj pointed to this perfectly. Late in his life his body was wracked with pain from cancer. One time a visitor asked him as he saw him wincing, “Maharaj, are you in great pain?” The sage replied, “There IS great pain.”
This is quite illuminating when looked into. “There IS great pain” acknowledges a condition of the body but makes no claim to owning that pain. In Presence Awareness, anything can arise. But it is NOT “taken on board.” When Charlie's back or arthritis hurts It is not MY pain. There is no suffering unless there the FALSE me-mine split in the thought-story.
All that arises is simply what IS... and is not a personal matter. Once it is seen that what we ARE is Presence Awareness and what we are NOT is “an individual,” the game is over; you can no longer believe that pain is personal - any more than you can believe the earth is flat.
It may take some deep looking for this to be seen... especially if there is severe pain. For example, being wracked by spasms of coughing may seem to take the attention so completely to the body that the awareness appears to have been “forgotten.” But in actual fact is the awareness ever really missing? No. It cannot be.
Possibly what is needed in these instances is to look, as soon as possible, into what it is that is in pain or suffering about there being a wracking cough. We say or think, “I am coughing. I am in pain.” We add on to the awareness “I Am” and say I am in pain. Making a sharp distinction between this “I Am” awareness and that which has pain... the body-mind organism... does the trick. When the sword of razor sharp discrimination is brought to bear on this business of the thought story “I am in pain,” then it is seen... effortlessly... that FIRST is I. I is just Awareness. Oneness. I-I, as the sage Ramana Maharshi referred to it. Then next comes I AM... Awareness, arising as Consciousness. Pure knowingness, no subject-object split; just the knowing Existence Is and I Am That.
THEN comes the mischief made of the thought machinery... the mind. The MIND says I am this BODY, and that is taken on board by the I Am as a belief in something real called “my body.”
That’s the trigger for suffering, as the mind adds on, “I am in pain, I don’t like that, I want that to change, why is this happening to me? Poor me! Etc.”
Notice that all this is pinned to a core belief in the identification with the body! And yet, where is the body except in a thought story appearing presently?
Making the distinction between the pure I Am, Awareness-Presence, and the thoughts that arise IN that Awareness, makes all the difference in seeing that while there may well be pain for one who has seen his or her True Nature, there is NO suffering, because suffering is only possible for the fictional person. Once that “person” has been seen to be nothing more than thoughts, based on a belief in a separate “me” thing identified as a body with a name, etc., the game is over.
The End of Suffering
When you find out that the earth is round you no longer buy into the story that you dare not sail out too far or you’ll fall off... once you know beyond doubt that the phantom is a ghost and is not real, the energy of belief no longer goes into that phantom “me” and its stories. Therein lies authentic freedom from all psychological suffering
The end of suffering is simple: Investigate who sees, who thinks, who you are, and see the false nature of the “one who suffers.” Then remain as you are... Presence Awareness, just that. Simple and natural. Home.
Q: Tremendously helpful. Thank you!!!
C: My pleasure!
(See Also: http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/2011/01/thank-you.html)
The End.
_________________________________________________________
My beloved Friend,
I am asked about this from time to time. Not long ago I write a complete essay on this. Here is what came out:
A Previous Q: Dave and I enjoyed our day with you on Saturday. Thank you! Would you mind telling me, again...the difference between pain and suffering. Or when does pain become suffering? I think I remember you summing this up in just a few sentences.
C: Pain is a happening, and every bodymind will have pain from time to time. The suffering kicks in when that pain is "taken on board", ie considered by the false sense of self to be MY pain. Along with that there is the deep conviction that what is SHOULD NOT BE ie there should not be pain (which is the insanity of the false ego-entity because ,well, when there is pain there IS pain. It is the interpretation of pain as MINE and Should Not Be that is added to the simple experiencing. The Self is the Emptiness meaningless or Absolute ... Consciousness-at-rest ... AND the experience-ING ie relative or Consciousness-in-motion.
The core of suffering could be pointed to as "owning" ie making what is both "mine" and "wrong". It's the habitual false identification with the bodymind object whilst ignoring the Absolute Space-like Subject that brings and reinforces pain in a kind of vicious circle. As many have said a good "intervention" is a VERY simple pause-and-look with the question, "To whom is this experience appearing?" That fact that there is the perceiving of the experience shows that there is something that never changes ie the pure Subject which is the perceive-ING.
These concepts are pointing back to the sense of false identity that operates in deep background, invisibly, until it's really looked at directly, and simply: "To whom does this appearance (whatever appears) appear?" "To ME" is the blatantly obvious realization. Then realizing that this "me" word POINTS to The Absolute, there is a flash of nothingness that knows itself as The Infinite unbounded Self. "Repeated" flashes demolish the false sense of separation and ownership (or "authorship!). Not like a practice, just a looking in the instant when there is any sense that what is should not be asi it is.
Hope that helps.
Also re-read ............
Chapter10. Suffering Is Distinct From Pain
(From "I Am to I Am, With Love")
Suffering and pain are distinct. How?
Basically, pain is a signal that something is not working in the organism. Dogs have pain. Humans have pain. But the dog does not suffer — because the dog does not have a sense of being a separate psychological entity that takes ownership of the pain— and as the owner, that entity adds the secondary idea that the pain “should not be.”
The sage Nisargadatta Maharaj pointed to this perfectly. Late in his life his body was wracked with pain from cancer. One time a visitor asked him as he saw him wincing, “Maharaj, are you in great pain?” The sage replied, “There IS great pain.”
This is quite illuminating when looked into. “There IS great pain” acknowledges a condition of the body but makes no claim to owning that pain. In Presence Awareness, anything can arise. But it is NOT “taken on board.” When Charlie's back or arthritis hurts It is not MY pain. There is no suffering unless there the FALSE me-mine split in the thought-story.
All that arises is simply what IS... and is not a personal matter. Once it is seen that what we ARE is Presence Awareness and what we are NOT is “an individual,” the game is over; you can no longer believe that pain is personal - any more than you can believe the earth is flat.
It may take some deep looking for this to be seen... especially if there is severe pain. For example, being wracked by spasms of coughing may seem to take the attention so completely to the body that the awareness appears to have been “forgotten.” But in actual fact is the awareness ever really missing? No. It cannot be.
Possibly what is needed in these instances is to look, as soon as possible, into what it is that is in pain or suffering about there being a wracking cough. We say or think, “I am coughing. I am in pain.” We add on to the awareness “I Am” and say I am in pain. Making a sharp distinction between this “I Am” awareness and that which has pain... the body-mind organism... does the trick. When the sword of razor sharp discrimination is brought to bear on this business of the thought story “I am in pain,” then it is seen... effortlessly... that FIRST is I. I is just Awareness. Oneness. I-I, as the sage Ramana Maharshi referred to it. Then next comes I AM... Awareness, arising as Consciousness. Pure knowingness, no subject-object split; just the knowing Existence Is and I Am That.
THEN comes the mischief made of the thought machinery... the mind. The MIND says I am this BODY, and that is taken on board by the I Am as a belief in something real called “my body.”
That’s the trigger for suffering, as the mind adds on, “I am in pain, I don’t like that, I want that to change, why is this happening to me? Poor me! Etc.”
Notice that all this is pinned to a core belief in the identification with the body! And yet, where is the body except in a thought story appearing presently?
Making the distinction between the pure I Am, Awareness-Presence, and the thoughts that arise IN that Awareness, makes all the difference in seeing that while there may well be pain for one who has seen his or her True Nature, there is NO suffering, because suffering is only possible for the fictional person. Once that “person” has been seen to be nothing more than thoughts, based on a belief in a separate “me” thing identified as a body with a name, etc., the game is over.
The End of Suffering
When you find out that the earth is round you no longer buy into the story that you dare not sail out too far or you’ll fall off... once you know beyond doubt that the phantom is a ghost and is not real, the energy of belief no longer goes into that phantom “me” and its stories. Therein lies authentic freedom from all psychological suffering
The end of suffering is simple: Investigate who sees, who thinks, who you are, and see the false nature of the “one who suffers.” Then remain as you are... Presence Awareness, just that. Simple and natural. Home.
Q: Tremendously helpful. Thank you!!!
C: My pleasure!
(See Also: http://beingisknowing.blogspot.com/2011/01/thank-you.html)
