PAIN AS THE GATEWAY
Did you know that pain can be a gateway to enlightenment? Pain isn’t the enemy. Within the cobwebs, the dust, the dirt, the dank and rancid confines of your deepest pain, is the key to liberation. Pain is the fire of the human experience and instead of running from it, we can awaken through it.
In fact, without this pain, we would likely never have the opportunity to evolve, grow, or find our true purpose in life. Just look at a green shoot pushing through the earth, a caterpillar dissolving in a chrysalis, and a mother giving birth – do you think these transformative experiences come without pain?
Struggling with pain has side effects. It elevates stress levels, magnifies painful symptoms, and leads to fear and discouragement. The nature of pain is to escalate when we struggle or fight mindlessly against it.
How can our relationship with pain become less of a fight? Changing our attitude towards pain can shift our perspective and lead to liberation. The first step to liberation is acceptance.
Reversing the thought of the dislike of suffering is the foundation for turning suffering into the path of enlightenment.
The eighth-century philosopher’s thoughtful advice offers an alternative to what might otherwise emerge as hand-to-hand combat with pain. He says that once we can step back from the preconception that “pain is bad,” we are offered the opportunity to reshape ourselves.
We can refine the way we speak to ourselves about our pain, gradually seeing more clearly what we need to do to heal. We may learn to listen more attentively to our own inner voice, drawing nearer to a place of clarity within. It is there that we will find the intersection between enlightenment and healing.
Softening your grip on the pain, follows accepting the pain. If we can balance our lives in such a way that we don’t cling too tightly to the pain or our resistance to pain, then we can transform our life. What prevents the mind from reaching forward is that we cling to the things we like, we cling to the struggle against the things we don’t like, and we cling to fears that perpetuate pain. We have a hard time letting go.
Finally, rest the mind, turn within and discover balance. Balance is not something we can get; it’s a state of mind. It is the realization that life is not stable but in constant motion. Balance is bringing things into harmony. It is something that we must continually do as life in itself is a balancing act.
Did you know that our suffering is usually a symptom of imbalance and that there is something about living in balance that frees us from suffering? The path of healing and the path of enlightenment are ultimately the same path but they separate when the automatic desire to be free of pain becomes a struggle against pain, rather than a search for harmony and balance within ourselves.
Balance is an inherent human condition — it lies within yourself, find it!
