Dissolving Pain
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I woke up in the morning with a splitting headache. I went to my Master and confessed to him that I was working till late yesterday and so my head was on fire now.
He touched me on my head and said, ‘If you abuse your body like that what else can you expect from the body in return. First of all, there is nothing called pain. Pain is simply your way of stopping the body from healing itself.’
I was amazed. I asked Him, ‘Master, how is it possible? I want the pain to go away...’
My Master stopped me midway and said, ‘You see, that is exactly why and how the pain starts. You want to stop pain. You do not even know what pain is and you want to stop pain.’
I looked at him, eagerly waiting for an explanation. Before I requested Him to clarify, He smiled and said, ‘Pain is a result of you obstructing the flow of energy. When you abuse your body, it cries for help. For example when you watch TV continuously for hours together, your eyes get strained. Continuously the eyes call for attention but you never entertain that call from your body. After some time you say eyes are paining.’
He paused for a while and continued, ‘When you do not give that attention to that part of the body, pain happens. Your lack of attention creates pain. We create pain by not attending to the call from our body.’
I said in a halting tone, ‘Master, I understand by not listening to the call from our body, we overstrain ourselves but I do not understand how that results in pain.’
My Master replied, ‘Actually when you abuse some part of your body, in your case, your head, your body is intelligent enough to react. There is a flow of energy gushing towards that part of the body but you stop the flow of energy. You again and again stop the body from healing on its own. You do not allow energy to reach the destination.’
He elaborated, ‘See, by giving attention to that part of the body, you are actually letting the energy to flow. So first you do not listen to call from the body which is continuously asking you, requesting you to stop straining it. Then, when your body starts to heal itself by letting energy flow, you stop even that from happening. Then what will happen? You start experiencing what you call pain.’
‘Master,’ I said, ‘sometimes, we do not even realize that we have strained our body and we then experience pain as an aftermath. How then can we overcome this pain?’
My Master looked at me and answered, ‘You see, when you experience pain, all you have to do is allow the energy to flow. That’s enough. You don’t have to do anything. You just have to let the body heal itself. That’s all.’
‘How do I let the energy flow? I mean how can I let the body heal itself?’ I enquired.
‘See, now you are asking me for a trick. You people always looks for tips and tricks. School kids learn mathematics formulas from formula books. Just like that, you are asking me for tips and tricks,’ said my Master with a laugh.
I looked at Him for an answer as I was indeed looking for some tip. He said, ‘I will tell you a very simple technique. Just watch the part of the body where it paining. Just see that part like a curious child. Do not see that part as if it were paining. For example in your case, see your head, see the skull, see the bones, and see the muscles surrounding the skull. Let your entire attention be on that part. Giving attention is giving energy. Do not see pain. Do not allow the word pain to occur in your thoughts. See the energy flow towards it. See it full of inquisitiveness. Get yourself into that part, feel that energy. You will see, by removing the very idea of pain, your pain will just go away.’
‘Another thing’ he continued, ‘If you have a headache, and you keep wishing that you had no headache, what do you think happens?’
I had no clue.
‘If all you can think of is headache, the headache will stay on. It will never go away. If instead of wishing that the headache will go away, you imagine, you visualize that you are well, you are healthy, it will certainly go away. Just try this and see what happens.’
Well. Every time I have some pain, which is not that often in any case these days, I think of getting well and focus of my attention on the spot where the pain. I find the pain getting sharper for a brief while, as I narrow my attention down to that spot instead of the general area. But, soon, very soon, the pain goes away. Miracles never cease with the Master!