It's quite interesting to observe what development has done to us. Why are there wars among nations? Why are there dictators like Hitler? Why are there psychological disorders among the rich? Why is there so much exploitation in this world? Why are people spending crores of rupees on useless functions while so many are dying hungry? How do we get so disconnected from fellow human beings?
Human beings are very insecure since the body they are born in is very fragile by its very nature. The moment we get some illness or accident, we feel pain in different parts of our body. Even a baby cries when he feels pain. That is the natural defense mechanism of the body. The body tries to draw our attention by making us feel pain so that we attend to that particular area of the body. If there is pain in the stomach, we will take a painkiller or any other medicine suggested by the doctor. Do we feel happy when there is no pain in the body? Probably not. We take the body for granted and the moment we have pain, our entire attention shifts to that part of the body which is paining.
However, we see many people have a high tolerance for pain. I have seen many people who can carry big bags of around 70-80 kg on their backs and unload the trucks full of such bags. We all have seen many athletes running and playing in almost physically intolerable conditions. We see many people standing for long hours. We see many soldiers surviving at a very high altitude where air pressure is almost impossible to bear and the temperature is -50 degrees. Do all these people pain? In fact, there have been reports about many players who get a very painful injury such as the twist of the ankle, and keep playing throughout the game. What happens in all these cases?
I feel that since pain is an alarm system of our body with a function to take our attention to a body part that needs attention, these people with a high tolerance for pain have trained their brains not to react to pain up to a higher level. That means we all have the capacity to change the tolerance level by training and practice. On the other hand, some of us get so many comforts that we lower the tolerance level. Such people get pain with slight physical exertion, difficult posture, long hours of work, and so on.
Probably, our psychological being is closely connected to our physical being. Every emotion has a corresponding physical sensation. Just like physical tolerance, we have a limit for emotional tolerance too. Once we experience negative emotions beyond the tolerance level, we feel uncomfortable and unhappy. However, just like the physical tolerance level, we can work on the emotional tolerance level too. That is the reason why there are many who are emotionally quite strong and are able to tolerate quite many negative emotions, while there are many who get disturbed very easily. Just like the physical tolerance, this too is a matter of training.
We just need to examine what happens when we get more and more comfort and emotional pleasure. We get money and we use the money to eat good food at expensive restaurants, buy the best clothes, buy expensive cars, flats, furniture, visit expensive locations, travel business class, and still remain unhappy. We want more money. The same is true for almost every desire. People who get power want more and more power. people who get positions want better positions. What is happening in the process? In the process, we are lowering the tolerance level of our body and mind. What appears to be growth in the outer world is actually a deterioration in the inner world. The lower the tolerance, the more vulnerable we are. That means we will have a greater impact on negative circumstances. Since life is unpredictable, such people are more likely to suffer in their lives.
There may be two approaches to live life. First to live a life of comforts and pleasures wherein we reduce our tolerance levels of physical and psychological pain and make efforts to get more money and power to get the objects that provide us pleasure. We will keep getting moments of pleasure in this case like sitting in nice AC or getting appreciation from the boss. However, with every comfort and pleasure, the tolerance level of the physical and psychological pain will reduce and whenever we do not get physical or psychological comfort, we will be in pain. Thus, most of the life will pass in a state of pain. On the other hand, we may work on physical and psychological tolerance. In that case, we do not run after the pleasures. Since we have increased our tolerance for pain, we will have more and more opportunities for joy. We will find joy in the wind outside on the balcony and don't need the AC for that. We will get joy as we express our views freely rather than making our happiness dependent on the appreciation of others.
Probably, the entire world is so unhappy, aggressive, and exploitative because it has lost connection within. With that lost inner connection, the motto of the entire humanity is to maximize the comforts and pleasures. In that endeavor to have more fun, pleasure, and comforts, it has invented the best of the machines for comfort and luxury. However, that has reduced the tolerance level of humanity quite significantly. With that reduced tolerance for physical and psychological pain, everybody is desperate to get more and more money and power. That is the reason we do not shy away from exploiting others for our pleasures. However, the exploiter fails to realize that the more he is exploiting others, the lower is he setting his tolerance level for physical and psychological pain and the more vulnerable he is making himself for the pain. That is how humanity is degenerating and the overall suffering of humanity is on the rise. As we connect to our inner self, we get the natural joy like a joyful breeze and our dependency on external pleasure reduces and our tolerance for the physical and psychological pain increases. That gives us the bandwidth to explore this world even if exploration carries a certain degree of physical or psychological pain.
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