Pain and Buddhism

The last two posts -- Pain and Suffering and Suffering and Clinging -- explained Buddhist teachings on suffering and pain. In this third post in the series I want to look at how some Buddhist teachers apply Buddhism to their pain.

The Theravadin monk Bhikkhu Bodhi says that his severe, chronic head pain "has helped me to develop patience, courage, determination, equanimity, and compassion." When he stops worrying about or struggling mentally with the pain, it becomes more tolerable. Contemplation helps him observe the pain dispassionately, without attaching to it.

He also said, "The most powerful tool I’ve found for mitigating pain’s impact is a short meditative formula repeated many times in the Buddha’s discourses: 'Whatever feelings there may be-past, present, or future- all feeling is not mine, not I, not myself.'"

Zen teacher Darlene Cohen lives with severe rheumatoid arthritis, and she is also a cancer survivor. Many of her writings on living with pain are posted online, as are audio files of some her her talks. She teaches others how to find "comfort and support in the mundane details of our everyday lives."

Vipassana meditation teacher Shinzen Young says that pain can be handled skillfully or unskillfully. Through meditation, one can quiet the resistance, agitation and impatience with which we usually relate to pain. Pain can become pure experience without the interface of suffering. "By not suffering I mean that the pain does not obscure the perfection of the moment, does not distort your perception or behavior, does not alienate you from your spiritual source or from your fellow beings," he said.

Photo Credit: © Yuris | Dreamstime.com