The teachings of Ajahn Suchart.
2 May 2024
“It is not the physical pain that you are not able to withstand, it is the mental pain that arises from the desire to get rid of your physical pain.”
Monk: Last night we had a chanting, all of the monks participated in the chanting and there were parts of it when we sat in meditation. In such situation where we are all new to meditation and to sitting through the night, there will be intense pain. During such period of intense pain, how do we deal with it such that we can see that the pain is not me, not mine?
Than Ajahn: The way to deal with physical pain depends on our ability. There are two ways to deal with physical pain. The first method is easier than the second one.
The first method is to ignore the pain by concentrating your mind on one object, like repeating a mantra, ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’, in order to prevent your mind from thinking of the pain. If you think of the pain, then your kilesa will arise, and your desire will want to get rid of the pain or want the pain to go away. When you have this desire you are actually creating more pain. The pain that you created is in the mind itself and it is a lot stronger than the physical pain. You can prevent this or avoid this if you use the mantra, by constantly reciting ‘Buddho’ ‘Buddho’ and never let the mind ever think of the physical pain.
If you can concentrate on reciting the mantra, maybe after a few minutes, the pain will subside or maybe it will disappear. This is the easy method, but a temporary method, because as soon as you stop reciting, or as soon as you start thinking of the pain, then you can also create more pain again.
The second method which is the way of wisdom, is to look at the pain. First, you have to separate the mind from the body and then you can separate the pain from your mind, because the pain arises from the body. It is the body that is painful, it is not the mind.
The mind is just someone watching the pain of the body, but due to the mind's delusion, it thinks that it is the body itself, so when it thinks that it is the body, when the body becomes painful, it thinks that it is in pain itself. In fact the mind is not the one who is experiencing the pain. The mind is someone who is just watching the pain of the body, so if you can separate the mind from the body, then you can separate the pain from the mind also, then you can just leave the pain alone.
If you have any desire for the pain to disappear, you are creating more pain to the point that you will not able to withstand that pain. If you can keep the mind calm and peaceful and not create any desire for the pain to disappear then the mind will be able to withstand the pain of the body. So this is the second method, to look at the body as anattā. It is not the mind who is in pain, it is the body that is in pain, so the mind doesn’t have to be afraid of the pain of the body, because the mind has no pain. But due to delusion, the mind thinks that the body is itself.
When the mind thinks that the body is the mind itself, when the body is in pain the mind thinks that it itself is in pain. When it thinks that it is in pain, it wants to get rid of that pain, then it has this desire.
When this desire arises, it is creating more pain, and this time the pain is in the mind, which is more intense than the physical pain and as a result you will not be able to withstand the physical pain.
It is not the physical pain that you are not able to withstand, it is the mental pain that arises from the desire to get rid of your physical pain. You must somehow stop creating this desire to get rid of the physical pain, by accepting it, by living with it.
By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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