How Can We Hurt Less When We Hurt?

In July 2017 I took a 10-day Vipassana meditation course in Taichung, Taiwan. It gave me one of the most important experiences of my life, one I still use to this day — and I had never thought to look for the principle behind it until a few days ago, when I read again the book I had bought for grandma, Osho’s The Buddha.

On the Vipassana course we sat for about 10 hours a day. By the fourth day my back hurt terribly, and that whole night was agony. On the morning of the fifth day we were taught to observe sensation deeply — every feeling in the body (itching, burning, sharp pain, numbness, aching) comes and goes, impermanent — and to receive them all without adding or subtracting any emotion, without making them grave, without making them a tragedy. And unbelievably, on the morning of the sixth day the pain vanished without a trace. With the small hurts and small pains since, I have learnt to make friends with the pain, to welcome it before reaching for medicine. And usually the experience is gentler and passes far more easily. Has anyone else had something like this?

Later, reading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, I came across the line:

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional”

and I understood this principle one layer deeper.

And here is the explanation I love best. It comes from the chapter “Suchness” in Osho’s book The Buddha.

“Try to understand the word suchness. The Buddha’s teaching turns on that word. In his own terms it is tathata — suchness. The whole Buddhist outlook can be reduced to that word: to live with it, to live it so deeply that the concept itself disappears and you become suchness. For instance, you fall ill. The attitude of suchness is: accept it, and say to yourself, “That is the nature of the body.” Do not struggle, do not resist. You have a headache — accept it. It is a law of nature. Suddenly there is a change, because with such an attitude change follows as a shadow follows a form. If you accept the headache, it will ease right off.

“Try it. If you feel discomfort and you accept it, it will disappear. Why? Because when you fight, your energy is split: half of it goes to the pain, and the other half goes to fighting the pain. A gap, a fissure, is made by the struggle. Truly, the more you fight the more it hurts. Once you accept, the force becomes one within. When the fissure is healed, all the energy is released, because there is no conflict left, and that released energy becomes healing energy. Getting well does not come from outside. Medicine can only help the body rouse the force within it so that it heals itself. The doctor’s task is to help you find your own power to heal. Health cannot be forced from outside. It comes from the fullness of your own energy. The word suchness can be applied to illnesses of the body, of the mind, and above all of the spirit. It is a secret method, and if it is applied rightly, all illness will come to an end. Begin with the body, because that is the lowest layer. If you succeed at that stage, go on up to the higher ones. If you fail there, it is hard to go any further.

“If the body falls ill, relax and accept, and say to yourself — “that is the nature of things.” The body is a compound of many parts. The body was born, and one day it will have to die. It is a very complex mechanism, so there are a great many ways for it to go wrong. Accept it, but do not identify with it. Once you accept, you will be indifferent, you will not be dependent on it. When you fight back, you go down to the level of the body. Acceptance is going beyond. When you accept, you are on the hilltop; the body is left behind. You say to yourself, “That is its own nature. What is born must perish. And if it is born only to die, then at some point it will fall ill. So there is no need to mind it too much.” You will watch, as though it were happening not to you but in the world of matter. That is its wonderful working: when you do not struggle, you rise above. You are not on a level with it. This transcendence becomes a healing force. Suddenly the body begins to change. The other illnesses of the mind — worry, tension, anxiety, sorrow — follow the same laws.”