Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.
Much of yoga training is spent reversing such conditioning as the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Very early in our practice, we discover that pain is an unavoidable part of life. In fact, pain teaches us where we need to pay attention. Rather than avoiding its present moment emergence, we are guided out of injury and harm’s way when we listen to its signal. Suffering, on the other hand, can be completely avoided because it is our personal choice. We have control over it. We can choose to react negatively to pain, or we can navigate painful events gracefully and emerge wisely purified when we respond with acceptance, mindfulness, resilience, perspective, and self-compassion.
Releasing our sensory attachment to pleasure while avoiding pain opens us to deeper truths and wisdom. Yoga Sutra 1.20 specifies that when progress is not stalled by sensory attachment to the physical world, the deepest state of Samadhi is experienced. This path to integration necessitates faith, strength, mindfulness, cognitive samadhi, and discriminative insight.
Respectively, faith is confirmed through the tests that life brings, i.e., accepting pain as a means of purification. Strength emerges through dedication, resolve, and perseverance to master the mind. Being mindful registers our actions, consequences, and lessons learned while remaining vigilantly alert from moment to moment. Cognitive samadhi is our preparatory foundation for integration, and finally, discriminative insight is the intuitive wisdom that leads us into higher states of samadhi through continuous self-awareness.
Our bodies wisely indicate where our pain is housed. All we need do is listen, respond, and repeat to witness the miracle of purification. My poem below attempts to illustrate this process
No Matter What
The body beckons —
be aware, listen deeply.
Where lives physical rigidity,
there lies emotional angst.
The knotty pain of resentment
inhibits flowing energy.
A gnarled body and mind
block love’s whispers.
Unlock the double helix’s wisdom, and
be done with resentment, no matter what.
Feel energy flow and awareness spiral in
the deep knowing that love is enough.
For more yoga teachings and actions, click here. Namaste.
