The Dart of Painful Feeling
The Buddha gave his teachings on liberation 2600 years ago in India. At first his teachings were not written down, but memorized by his disciples and then recited periodically amongst the community to maintain the Dharma (Buddha called his teachings “Dharma”). This passing of the Buddha’s instructions from person to person in the form of discourses is called, “Oral transmission”. Eventually these recitations were written down in Pali. A huge compilation of these teachings is contained in a voluminous collection called the “Pali Cannon”. The Pali Cannon is a collection of the oldest known teachings by the Buddha and offers straight-forward and easy to understand advice on how to remove suffering from one’s life.
I just checked out the book, “In the Buddha’s Words” - An anthology of Discourses from the Pali Cannon, edited, translated and introduced by Bikkhu Bodhi who is an American Buddhist monk and scholar. I was struck by the second sutra (a Sutra is a written teaching of the Buddha) which instructs us on the right way to deal with physical pain. It seems that when we have pain or sickness there are two feelings - the physical discomfort, and then the feeling that we wish we were not feeling bad. As a result of that we spend much of the time anguishing, impatiently grasping at a time when we will feel better. It seems that this second type of feeling is unnecessary - we can approach our physical problems with equanimity (I think that’s a better word than detachment). We can do this through a thorough understanding and acceptance of impermanence - knowing that all things are subject to change and growth and finally decay, including our body.
In this sutra, the Buddha compares the “Unreflective wordling’s” approach to painful sensation, as opposed to the “instructed noble disciple’s” approach. The difference lies in each one’s understanding of the truth. Those who have not understood impermanence will therefore grasp at all situations, good and bad. In bad situations he will become attached to good situations and in good situations he will be full of fear for losing his good feeling. This is mental anguish and is the sign of an underlying ignorance of the truth of our situation.
Equanimity based on knowing the nature of change can be called, “Not making a big deal out of things.” Or stated as an instruction:
“Don’t make a big deal out of bad things. Don’t make a big deal out of good things. Don’t make a big deal out of not making big deals about things” - ZaChoeje Rinpoche
This is also the essance of Tantra and Mahamudra. It is the vow: “Whatever happens, may it happen.” We might feel like to have an attitude like this would cause us to lose some ground. But the truth is groundless and knowing the truth is bliss. This is Zen, Tantra, Crazy Wisdom, the whole thing. Let it be.
Anyway, without further adieu, the Buddha:
The Tribulations of Unreflective Living
(1) The Dart of Painful Feeling
“Monks, when the uninstructed worldling experiences a painful feeling, he sorrows, grieves, and laments; he weeps beating his breast and becomes distraught. He feels two feelings – a bodily one and a mental one. Suppose they were to strike a man with a dart, and then strike him immediately afterward with a second dart, so that the man would feel a feeling caused by two darts. So too, when the uninstructed worldling experiences a painful feeling, he feels two feelings – a bodily one and a mental one.
“While experiencing that same painful feeling, he harbors aversion toward it. When he harbors aversion toward painful feeling, the underlying tendency to aversion toward painful feeling lies behind this. While experiencing painful feeling, he seeks deligt in sensual pleasure. For what reason? Because the uninstructed wordling does not know of any escape from painful feeling other than sensual pleasure. When he seeks delight in sensual pleasure, the underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feelings lies behind this. He does not understand as it really is the origin and the passing away, the gratification, the danger and the escape in the case of these feelings. When he does not understand these things, the underlying tendency to ignorance in regard to neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling lies behind this.
“If he feels a pleasant thing, he feels it attached. If he feels a painful feeling, he feels it attached. If he feels a neither-painful-nor=pleasant feeling, he feels it attached. This, monks, is called an uninstructed worldling who is attached to birth, aging, and death; who is attached to sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; who is attached to suffering, I say.
“Monks, when the instructed noble disciple experiences a painful feeling, he does not sorrow, grieve, or lament; he does not weep beating his breast and become distraught. He feels one feeling – a bodily one, not a mental one. Suppose they were to strike a man with a dart, but they would not strike him immediately afterward with a second dart, so that the man would feel a feeling caused by one dart only. So too, when the instructed noble disciple experiences a painful feeling, he feels one feeling – a bodily one, and not a mental one.
“While experiencing that same painful feeling, he harbors no aversion toward it. Since he harbors no aversion toward painful feeling, the underlying tendency to aversion toward painful feeling, the underlying tendency to aversion does not lie behind this. While experiencing painful feeling, he does not seek delight in sensual pleasure. For what reason? Because the instructed noble disciple knows of an escape from painful feeling other than sensual pleasure. Since he does not seek delight in sensual pleasure, the underlying tendency to lust for pleasant feeling does not lie behind this. He understands as it really is the origin and the passing away, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of these feelings. Since he understands these things, the underlying tende3ncy to ignorance in regard to neither-painful –nor-pleasant feeling does not lie behind this.
“If he feels a pleasant feeling, he feels it detached. If he feels a painful feeling, he feels it detached. If he feels a neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, he feels it detached. This monks, is called a noble disciple who is detached from birth, aging, and death; who is detached from sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; who is detached from suffering, I say.
“This, monks, is the distinction, the disparity, the difference between the instructed noble disciple and the uninstructed worldling.”
superkain said,
01.11.06 at 5:37 pm
When did you put up the section where you are talking to yourself? that is so far out there.
I liked this, but i got alot of wierd stuff out of it. I got the message… but then I started to understand why people can get into Sado-masochism. Like spanking and stuff… if the natural reaction is to seek pleasure to sooth the pain, then the mind will do it automatically, it seems. Maybe it makes the eventual pleasure that much better after pain.
Man, am I wierd.
Oh… I think my purpose is to teach. I want to get all the information in the world and then give it to everyone else so they can understand it. in order to do that i have to learn how individuals process information and then cater to that.
beesucker said,
01.12.06 at 1:31 pm
What section am I talking to myself? You mean, “You, me”?
That’s an interesting point about sado-masochism. It seems that during the pain you are already anticipating the pleasure. Perhaps many of our activities are like this. We are taught, ‘no pain, no gain’. Maybe we have a subtley sado-masochistic aproach to our lives.
There’s a story about this old wise man named Mula Nasrudin who kind of taught by being stupid. He wore shoes that were too small for his feet - very painful, and all day long he would walk around and complain, ‘Oh, my poor feet!’ He would yell out in pain and carry on like that. One day someone stopped Nasrudin and said, “Mula, you can afford new shoes, why don’t you just get the right size and then you won’t be in any pain!”
Nasrudin said, “You don’t understand, if I get the right sized shoes and stop hurting, that will deny me the great bliss of taking them off at the end of the day.”
icecrown said,
01.13.06 at 8:27 am
when a zen student feels body pain, they only say “ouch!” the whole universe is only “ouch!” when you take the 5 precepts at some zen schools, they observe the ancient chinese custom of “precept burns”. when you take the vows, a monk or teacher’s assistant rests the burning end of two incense sticks on the inside of the left forearm for an instant. the scar serves as a good reminder of your vows, but the main reason for the burn is that when you feel it, all thoughts and dualistic ideas are destroyed for an instant, and you only feel “ouch!” you don’t judge it as “pain”, you perceive it as only strong sensation. you just feel it. i happen to have two such burns.
also, sado-masochism is a bit different than what you might think. a masochist is someone who registers pain differently than the rest of us, much like how i just described. masochists like to “feel”, and by experimenting with sensations other than pleasure, they lose their fear of suffering. when they get slapped or whatever, they receive it as sensation, as pure experience. they are not just lying there hating the pain and waiting for the pleasure afterwards, they are actually converting the pain into a sensation they can lose themselves in. pain and pleasure collide and disappear. people who get alot of tattoos or body piercing can maybe understand this, as well as yoga students trying to open up their bodies. some masochists even have out of body experiences. i think they only transcend pain under sexual circumstances however, so this is not to say we can walk up to masochists and punch them in the face. they would feel it like we do, and you can bet that punch would be returned.
Tom said,
01.16.06 at 4:10 pm
Trackback. This post is cited in Blogmandu, Roundup for Dec 19 - Jan 14 [Part 3 of 4].
Linda said,
05.22.06 at 3:48 am
So, according to Buddha, there is no difference to Chronic Pain and Pain? Having a dart thrown at me, or being hit in the face,or burned by incense on the arm does sound like no big deal to me, it sounds like nothing really. How do you deal with Chronic Severe Pain? It takes energy to have patience, and long term agonizing pain disrupts the spirit, makes meditation impossible, sends shock waves through the whole body constantly, relaxation cannot happen. Enlighten me.
beesucker said,
05.26.06 at 1:37 am
Hi Linda,
That is a really good question! Thank you for asking here. I hope I can point you something that might help. Chronic, severe pain is very difficult to relax with. It is very difficult. I have only experienced chronic pain for a few hours or a few weeks - like when I was recovering from a hernia operation. At that time I didn’t have a practice so all I did was eat my percocet- i kept eating more until the pain went away and I felt happy. Then I got really depressed, and it took way too long for the pain to go away and for the wound to heal. It was really all very painful and very chronic.
I don’t think that the Buddha is saying that you can make chronic pain disappear. That is very difficult. He is saying that our depressed mind is also chronic. We can have more success changing our attitude about pain than we can in directly erasing it. Like if we work with our mind, then we can have less suffering.
It is very difficult, but there are some examples of people who have gotten enlightenment even though they had a lot of suffering. Like there is a story of a man who had leprosy and he went to a Zen Master. He said, “Master, please wash away all of my sins!” The master said, “Show me your sins and I will wash them away.” The man sat down and really worked hard on this question - no bullshit type of looking. Eventually he said to the master, “I have looked, but I can’t find my sins here.” The master said, “I have washed away your sins”. The man’s mind was free and he was able to teach Zen - he became a Zen Master! So it is possible. But it is important for you to see for yourself. Stories are no good, right? I can’t Enlighten you. No one can. We have to do the work ourselves.
It is not only people with chronic pain that won’t meditate. Also very healthy people can find it difficult. I think that whoever comes to meditate must start with the question, ‘what am I?’ I don’t mean like seeing that we are just atoms or stardust or something. It’s like, there are atoms, but why? If this question starts to burn in your head then it will become stronger than the pain. It will be more powerful. “I have all of this pain, but where does it come from?’ You need a question like that. And it can be helpful to find examples of people who have overcome their pain and become happy. There’s really lots of stories like that and they can be inspiring.
I didn’t get your question because I was on retreat. I’ll post a nice article about how that went. But I met someone on retreat that had cancer. She had Chemotherapy three times, I think. She was miserable and hated it and her hair fell out and she was so sick. So she told the doctor that she was through, that she would take it from here. He argued with her, explaining that she had a very bad cancer and that she would die if she didn’t continue with the treatment. But she didn’t care, she was already miserable and would rather take her chance with dying. So she learned about herbs and mixed them together and did some sort of regimen and got the cancer out of her body. Then she really had the question, ‘what am I?’ and she started to practice with us at Emaho and she says that she is very happy.
I’ve heard that with chemotherapy they have great success if the patient visualizes that the radiation is like energy bullets that penetrate the cancer and don’t affect the tissue around it. They imagine that the Chemo just hits the target directly - like they actually picture that in their mind when they are doing the procedure and then the Chemotherapy is more successful.
So there are examples of people who have gotten better - its good to be inspired by that. And there are certain techniques that are very helpful in healing. The interesting thing is that the visualization that I talked about above is a type of meditation - one that helps sick people.
There is no guarantee of course, but applying an optimistic attitude and some sort of practice like combining herbs or doing a visualization is good and might relieve the second dart of painful feeling - we might not suffer so much if we apply ourselves in a skillful way to healing.
In Tibetan Buddhism, we have a practice called Medicine Buddha. First we work on not identifying with ourselves as sick. Like in our mind at the time of practice, we don’t think that way. Instead we imagine that we are a Buddha - deep blue in color and we have perfected the ability to heal ourselves and other beings. We imagine that blue light coming from our heart cleans out all the negative stuff - not just the physical stuff, but also the mental negativity. We can imagine our ‘ordinary’ body to be totally purified by this light. It is just a visualization that we do in our minds. It is not like a Buddha, ‘out there’ that we are manifesting. We are just trying to connect with our healing nature and direct it. So we think of this really clearly and it can help lighten our minds - can bring some joy. We also imagine that the light is cleaning out everyone else too!
So I hope that helps. I think the post “The Dart of Painful Feeling” is very basic and general. There are ways of overcoming much of our suffering, but we must do that work ourselves. It is not impossible. Many people have had success with methods like these, so it is not impossible - luckily!
Authentic Personality » Meditating With Chronic Pain said,
05.26.06 at 1:54 am
[…] I’m back from retreat. I’ll post something about that soon and put up some pictures. But for now look at this question I got on my post, ‘The Dart of Painful Feeling‘: […]
Authentic Personality » OM NOT A BIG DEAL HUM said,
06.12.06 at 10:24 am
[…] Related Articles: The Dart of Painful Feeling The Essence of Buddha’s Teachings […]
Ken said,
09.18.06 at 1:45 am
As one who lives with chronic and has for many years now, one can always try. But that doesn’t even come close to the difficulty with daily chronic pain. It is quite intellectual, another to experience. Some days I can, the others I can’t. I hold no attachements left to this body, and one day at a time, wait for it to be gone.
I know without doubt I am not my body. But daily pain is a struggle beyond words.
Buddha in my humble opinion didn’t say suffer for the sake of suffering. If there is a medicine, take it. The ultimate medicine is waking up from this dream we are all in, but until then, we should all do as best as we can with whatever positive means neccessary.
Be it now or at death, the only point is to wake up. This I have learned.