I picked up Eckhart Tolle’s The Power Of Now a few years ago. I’d heard great things, but it didn’t resonate. I held on to it however, and I’m back at it. Someone must have changed all the words because I’m loving it.
Given a recent bout with humaning, ie shit happens and it hurts, I’m in a fresh state of mind to think about this particular section.
Past Pain: Dissolving the Pain Body
To over simplify everything, Tolle says that our Pain Bodies are entities in and of themselves. They lay dormant when we’re happy and feed when we’re in pain. That means they want us to feel the pain and are quite tricksy about getting us there.
He goes on to say we can starve them to death and live pain free. I did say it was an over simplification, but this is it in a nutshell.
My particular event was interesting. It happened on Friday. I hurt for an hour or so and then I was able to literally rise above. I became the observer in Tolle’s words and saw everything for what it was. Nothing here was important. Not in the big picture. It was beautiful and I was at peace. I was grateful for being able get there so quickly.
The next morning, however, I woke up on the human side of the bed. It was a shit day, plain and simple.
My Pain Body rarely ever lashes out to others. It’s all for me and me alone.
Half way through the day I stopped fighting it and just gave in. I wallowed in every emotion that event caused. From a past betrayal to the sheer unfairness of the entire situation. Poor me. Waah Waah Waah.
I have to say, on some level it felt fucking great to just lay down and roll in all that crap.
I woke up the next day, back in form. High on life and moving on.
My question is, do we want to kill all the Pain Bodies all the way? What happens if we do?
What does that do to our humanity? We’re humans. We’re here to experience this life with all that comes with it. We are here to feel, to learn and to grow.
Now, obviously if you’re in pain ninety percent of the time, something’s got to change. But if your Pain Body shows up only now and then, and ultimately teaches you something (childhood abuse and abandonment issues still alive, thank you very much) that’s good. It showed me I still have some things to let go.
So, do we really want life without any pain? We need the downs to make the ups. Life is a sine wave, not a flat line.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
As always, with love,
I’m Sabine Priestley, an electrical engineer and author of Science Fiction Romance novels—yes, the steamy kind. I’m currently studying the nexus of quantum physics and spirituality. There will be words. I am a dreamer and a chaser of magic. I love people who aren’t bound by that which we call reality.
#OneLove
I’m blogging travel and exploring life at Brilliance.
You’ll find my tech related things here at TechNiCity.
Great topic to discuss Sabine. I feel like we are spiritual beings living with human labels. A ” human label” in and of itself is even a label. But I also think that without pain, how would we know love? Again, more labels. Let’s go deeper. We could say that pain isn’t even pain; it’s an emotion, that has a label, and serves a purpose to help us grow, learn, guide us , give us strength, keep us out of trouble,etc.etc. Those are growing pains. Then there are bad pains which are always self inflicted. They sometimes hurt like hell but what can you say? You did it to yourself. And since every living thing everywhere is part of God, and God is love; then if you have true love in your heart, all of your pains are growing pains and only good things from growing pains! I think that pain is part of the natural order of things. But that’s just my opinion.
It’s a great opinion. I agree that pain serves a purpose. I also think the more we grow as people, the easier those bounces are to deal with.
Wrote something similar about being an asshole just this morning. Reader’s Digest version: I’m a recovering asshole. It’s how I learned being an asshole is bad–and learned about the pain I and other assholes caused. Really hard realization. Maybe the hardest. Imagine that–coming to the realization that you’re an asshole. It’s an emptying thing. So having caused and experienced pain, I get it. I understand its weight. And its value. It has humbled me. Softened me. Taken the edges off. It’s made me less, but I think contentment–if you will, the Christian concept of salvation, is about less. It’s about stripping away the crap that we love so much and would never give up willingly.
Thing is, the longer you hold onto it, the more it hurts to give it up.
That’s powerful, Chris. Do you think that contributed to your health issues a few years back? I’m curious about the connection between our spiritual bodies and our physical.