Dealing with Pain: How Inner Peace Helps

To align with the boundless peace within you, you have to first locate it. Once that is done, you have to align yourself with it during every waking moment, until it becomes effortless. This is actually quite easy, since the state you will be in is your basic identity, the "basic you". It is your true nature, long obscured by years of identification with your thoughts (i.e., your mind).

The fact is that your thoughts are not you. You are aware of them but are separate from them. You can see this for yourself if you look deeply into what is going on in your head. To do this, find a quiet place and budget 10 minutes of solitude on five or six occasions. On each occasion, close your eyes and pay attention to what is happening in your mind. Whenever you think something, try and answer the question, "Who was aware of that thought?"

You will ultimately realize that 'you' are aware of your thoughts and that you are a motionless witness to them. They come and go but you remain untouched, a constant witness who is still and at perfect rest. This is not some whimsical theory, either... it is thousands of years old, and is the attitude just describes is what all the great prophets and wise men have had over the millennia. It would be a good thing to join their ranks, say what?

Once you are constantly aligned with inner peace, pain is not such a nerve-racking experience. This is because you are a witness to it, and therefore not mistakenly thinking that it is happening to you. It also means that your mind will not be crammed with thoughts like, "God, this is so lousy" or "Why does this have to happen only to me?"

You quietly watch the pain, experiencing it but not being too disturbed by it. It will by no means be transformed into a pleasurable event... but you will not be agitated by it. You should of course follow your normal course of action for physical treatment of the pain (like taking a painkiller).

There was a great sage called Ramana Maharishi who was alive in the 1950s. He developed cancer on his elbow and had to be operated on. He refused to be anaesthetized during the surgery. When a concerned friend asked him, "O Learned One, did it not hurt terribly?" the sage replied, "The body had pain. Am I the body?"

Your body and mind are wondrous creations but they are not you. You are a peaceful witness to them. Realize this and make your life serene!

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