Pain is our greatest teacher. When we undergo pain, we either try to ignore the pain or find a solution. We have a headache and take a painkiller or divert our mind to something else so that the body can heal itself. When we experience a feeling of separation, we either make an effort to meet that person or divert our mind to the work at hand. When we have a pain due to the loss of a relationship, we form another relationship or divert our mind towards some other thoughts.
We can try to divert our minds to something else if we are in control of our attention. That can happen in cases where the source of pain is something that is not at the core of our existence. When we have options and we can fill the vacuum with something else. Pain of handling poor working conditions can be replaced by thoughts about the smiles of kids at home. Pain of a tiresome journey may be replaced with the thoughts of a reunion with old friends. However, this formula does not work when the pain is due to the loss of somebody or something that is at the core of our existence. For example, it is difficult to divert attention when we feel pain due to the loss of parents or someone very close to our heart.
The other way to handle pain is to make efforts. We feel the pain of separation from our kids when they go to a hostel, and therefore make efforts to meet them. We feel the pain inflicted by a certain disease and make efforts to get the same treated by visiting the hospital. However, again, it is not possible to make efforts for everything. We can make psychological efforts too by reasoning out for ourselves and finding some good justification for the pain. However, again, efforts have their own limitations. For example, we can't make efforts to bring back a dead person.
Further, the more we make psychological efforts and the more that pain haunts us. The more we think of not feeling the pain and the more it feels. It is because of a simple reason. Pain arises due to some loss. For example, the loss of our own child. Whenever that pain arises, the mother will try to find the reasons for the loss. Why did God do this to me? Maybe the law of Karma. What did I do wrong? I did not hurt anybody. Maybe something I did in a past life. Why should I be punished by God for the crimes of past lives? What did that small boy do? Why should he be punished? The thread of thoughts will continue, and there will be no relief from pain. In fact, the more we think and the more we will experience pain.
Can we notice why? Isn't it because we are not examining our thoughts as witnesses? The moment we observe our thoughts as a witness, we notice that we made certain assumptions about the permanence of life. We presumed that our children would stay with us for a longer time. At the very outset, we ignored the temporariness of all the forms. All the bosons and fermions take birth from the same field and merge back into that. That field is the eternal reality. All life forms are temporary. Suppose we are a part of that field, we can see all the thoughts emerging from us and merging back to us. No thought can trouble us because all the thoughts are our own creation. Suppose we are those thoughts, those mental concepts, we will experience pain whenever those concepts are broken. Due to our habit pattern, we keep reacting all the time, and the witness state is difficult to be in. That's why there is constant suffering in this world.
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