How to deal with physical pain and mental anguish?

• marcteng

  11 Jan 08, 20:54

  I was wondering how enlightened pple react, when their body is sick or pain.
  They endure and understand this will pass?
  
  When pple insult you, or you smell an unpleasant thing, you are angry or agitated, how do one react, especially mortals like us
• An Eternal Now

  11 Jan 08, 22:40

  Originally posted by marcteng:
  I was wondering how enlightened pple react, when their body is sick or pain.
  They endure and understand this will pass?
  
  When pple insult you, or you smell an unpleasant thing, you are angry or agitated, how do one react, especially mortals like us

  No dualistic reactions. Enlightened people leave no trace... and this is most important.
  
  There is not even a need to endure, and it is seen that there is no separate individual suffering or experiencing the pain... nor is there someone separated from the pain that can escape from the feeling of pain. Pain just is, arising and dissolving on its own.
  
  "There is only ever the present appearance of life, with no separate "individual" at its core who could ever escape, even if they wanted to. This message is about nothing less than the possibility of absolute freedom from suffering and seeking, right here, right now, in the midst of this very life. A life lived by no-one. A life without a centre."
  
  Whatever good or bad deeds done, too, must not leave any trace and this is most important.. normal ppl cannot understand the importance of this because to have no idea of how conciousness functions.
  
  Whatever anger arises when it is gone it should not leave any trace, and whatever good deeds done too.
• justdoit77

  12 Jan 08, 20:00

  Originally posted by marcteng:

  I was wondering how enlightened pple react, when their body is sick or pain.
  They endure and understand this will pass?
  
  When pple insult you, or you smell an unpleasant thing, you are angry or agitated, how do one react, especially mortals like us

  If they fall sick, they will do something to cure the illness, so they will recover quickly and able to guide the sentient beings.
  Yes, as what AEN said, they don't need to endure the pain, as they don't suffer from physical pain.
  
  When people mistreated you and making you angry, you must know that it is due to their greed, hatred and ignorance they made this mistake. It is not their nature to want to harm you. In fact, if they remember that they were your parents in the past, they'd rather take the pain themselves than to touch you.
  In fact, most of them suffer before you, till they can't endure it.
  What do they get when they mistreat you? they get bad karma, but in return, your bad karma reduce. If you don't have bad karma, no one will be able to hurt you anyway.
  
  Another suggestion is you can use a transformation method.
  When one extremely angry, the anger is actually very powerful and destructive, you then look into yourself, find your own faults, ask yourself what I have done in the past that give me this bad karma, why I am still so lazy to practice and improve myself, I must do things wiser next time.
  
  Another method is to visualize other people who suffer the same way as you, feel their pain and develop compassion to them.
  
  Which method to use, depends on individual and situation. the 2nd one is good to wake up lazy people. The 1st one will make one more compassion.
  Other method will be to train yourself to be mindful so when the anger about to rise, you will detect and avoid it.
  or if you are compassion enough, the anger won't even rise at all, then you can forget about all the above already.
• An Eternal Now

  12 Jan 08, 23:15

  Originally posted by justdoit77:

  Yes, as what AEN said, they don't need to endure the pain, as they don't suffer from physical pain.

  I understand what you mean, but just wanna clarify in case of misunderstanding by other readers.
  
  Pain is still felt, our Buddha Nature is pure awareness so how can pain not be felt? The pain is too an expression of Buddha Nature... even the Buddha feels pain.
  
  As the saying goes, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.
• longchen

  13 Jan 08, 00:04

  Originally posted by An Eternal Now:

  I understand what you mean, but just wanna clarify in case of misunderstanding by other readers.
  
  Pain is still felt, our Buddha Nature is pure awareness so how can pain not be felt? The pain is too an expression of Buddha Nature... even the Buddha feels pain.
  
  As the saying goes, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

  Yes, Eternal Now is right.
• Isis

  13 Jan 08, 04:45

  Quoted from Dharma book: The four noble Truth..
  
  /\
  
  It is easy to find a scapegoat for our problems.' If my mother had really loved me or if everyone around me had been truly wise, and fully dedicated towards providing a perfect environment for me, then i would not have the emotional problems i have now. This is really silly! Yet that is how some people actually look at the world, thinking that they are confused and miserable because they did not get a fair deal. But with this formula of the First Noble Truth, even if we have a pretty miserable life, what we are looking at is not that suffering which comes from out there, but what we create in our own minds around it. This is an awakening in a person - an awakening to the Truth of suffering. And it is a Noble Truth because it is no longer blaming the suffering that we are experiencing on others.......
  
  Now i am not saying that others are never the source of our frustration and irritation, but what we are pointing at with this teaching is our own reaction to life. If somebody is being nasty to you or deliberately and malevolently trying to cause you suffer, and you think it is that person who is making you suffer, you still have not understood this First Noble Truth. Even if he is pulling your fingernails or doing other terrible things to you - as long as you think you are suffering because of that person, you have not understood this First Noble truth. To understand suffering is to see clearly that it is our reaction to the person pulling out our fingernails. ' I hate you,' but the suffering involves ' I hate you.' and ' How can you do this to me,' and 'I'll never forgive you.'
  
  However, don't wait for somebody to pull out your fingernails in order to practise the First Noble Truth. Try it with little things, like somebody being insensitive or rude or ignoring you. If you are suffering because that person has slighted or offended you in some ways, you can work with that. There are many times in daily life when we can be offended or upset. We can feel annoyed or irriated just by the way somebody walks or looks, at least I can. Sometimes you can notice yourself feeling aversion just because of the way somebody walks or because they don't do something that they should - One can get very upset and angry about things like that. The person has not really harmed you or done anything to you, like pulling out your fingernails, but you still suffer.....
  
  --------------------------------------
  
  You will still feel pain but you will not suffer because of the pain.
  
  My two cents
• Isis

  13 Jan 08, 04:49

  Your sorrow is caused by yourself.
  Your sorrow is your own making.
  You are your own liberator.
  
  ~ Ven. Dr k Dhammananda
• Isis

  13 Jan 08, 04:53

  Originally posted by An Eternal Now:

  No dualistic reactions. Enlightened people leave no trace... and this is most important.
  
  There is not even a need to endure, and it is seen that there is no separate individual suffering or experiencing the pain... nor is there someone separated from the pain that can escape from the feeling of pain. Pain just is, arising and dissolving on its own.
  
  "There is only ever the present appearance of life, with no separate "individual" at its core who could ever escape, even if they wanted to. This message is about nothing less than the possibility of absolute freedom from suffering and seeking, right here, right now, in the midst of this very life. A life lived by no-one. A life without a centre."
  
  Whatever good or bad deeds done, too, must not leave any trace and this is most important.. normal ppl cannot understand the importance of this because to have no idea of how conciousness functions.
  
  Whatever anger arises when it is gone it should not leave any trace, and whatever good deeds done too.

  nice..
  Thanks
  
  /\
• Herzog_Zwei

  13 Jan 08, 14:44

  Originally posted by An Eternal Now:

  I understand what you mean, but just wanna clarify in case of misunderstanding by other readers.
  
  Pain is still felt, our Buddha Nature is pure awareness so how can pain not be felt? The pain is too an expression of Buddha Nature... even the Buddha feels pain.
  
  As the saying goes, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

  Pain and suffering are one and together in nature, suffering is not optional. But spreading futher misery to others is optional.
• An Eternal Now

  13 Jan 08, 18:25

  Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:

  Pain and suffering are one and together in nature, suffering is not optional. But spreading futher misery to others is optional.

  Pain and suffering can be separated, just as 'self' and 'pain' can be separated. For a practitioner, self is dropped, pain arise and goes by itself. There is no dualistic reaction towards the pain, no reaction of 'me' and 'pain'.. and the mind does not 'receive' nor grasp on the pain.
  
  Some hours ago due to some incident... feelings of anger arose in me. Usually it will linger on.. but it disbanded right there without a trace.
  
  Our thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, let them arise and disband without carrying traces, with awareness/right mindfulness and wisdom as the guiding light. In this way we remain undistracted... in this way nothing affects us. Every moment is a new miracle of life, don't carry the baggage of the past.
  
  I posted two articles in the past on this topic in the past -- naked awareness leaving without a trace.
  
  See: smells