pain

is, in zen, not just the physical sensation but also the aversion to the primary physical sensation. It includes a cacophony of resistance in the body to the pain, as well as painful emotional thinking, including blame of others ('the timekeeper forgot to ring the bell!'), self-blame ('i'm such a wimp!'), fear ('what if I can never get up again''), despair, anger, an so on.

One of the most powerful things you learn from siting still in the midst of pain is that pain is two things. It is of course primarily a physical sensation. But it is also the psychophysical aversion to the primary physical sensation. This aversion appears as a cacophony of resistance in the body to the pain, as well as painful emotional thinking, including blame of others ('The timekeeper forgot to ring the bell!'), self-blame ('I'm such a wimp!'), fear ('What if I can never get up again''), despair, anger, an so on. If you can sit still for all this and keep breathing, eventually you discover that it is the aversion, much more than the primary sensation, that hurts. Eventually you can cut through and usually all of a sudden drop the aversion. In that moment, astonishingly, you realize that the physical sensation itself is not so bad.'

Norman Fischer

Authors(0)

Norman FischerThinkers

Norman Fischer