Suppressing pain techniques
Re: Suppressing pain techniques
Pain may be a very good support for satipatthana on feelings... If you undertand and see it well, when any other feeling arise you see that there is same qualities as pain but less intensive, so you stop interpret them as plesent or inplesent but just as they are...
Ajahn Nanadassano (before ordaining) : Venerable Ajahn, what is the bigest error that buddhist do in their practice?
Ajahn Jayasaro : They stop practicing ...
Ajahn Jayasaro : They stop practicing ...
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Re: Suppressing pain techniques
If pain weren't happening to you, there would be no pain. All these feelings are 'yours'. No manipulation is going to stop pain permanently. Old age is mostly pain. You can't divorce yourself from pain. Trying to do this is ultimately futile. It is part of the overall experience of the senses, the body. Separating ourselves from pain via the thinking process is divisive, you and pain. Choosing to separate is the problem, not the pain.Nwad wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2018 5:28 am Pain may be a very good support for satipatthana on feelings... If you undertand and see it well, when any other feeling arise you see that there is same qualities as pain but less intensive, so you stop interpret them as plesent or inplesent but just as they are...
When an animal is in pain, they usually stop what they are doing, take a relaxed position. They allow the natural processes of the body to do its work without the interference of thought and manipulation. We can learn something from this. Pain represents something to be avoided. Animals don't avoid pain like people. They don't build up defense systems in their minds and all kinds of strategies to deal with it. They don't run to the doctor, either. I am not suggesting to not take medicine or not alleviate pain in some fashion if you must. It is a way of looking at pain that I'm suggesting and how we try to fight/avoid it.
Re: Suppressing pain techniques
When I am bleeding or in great physical pain, I will first recognise the painful sensation and noting on it "pain, pain, such is the sensation of pain", if I still cannot bear it, there I recall the Buddha's great determination of destroying all Defilements and the great pains He bear in the countless past lives to achieve thirty Paramis.
So far it helps me a lot ...when I having epilepsy attacks or accidents.
So far it helps me a lot ...when I having epilepsy attacks or accidents.
Hiriottappasampannā,
sukkadhammasamāhitā;
Santo sappurisā loke,
devadhammāti vuccare.
https://suttacentral.net/ja6/en/chalmer ... ight=false
sukkadhammasamāhitā;
Santo sappurisā loke,
devadhammāti vuccare.
https://suttacentral.net/ja6/en/chalmer ... ight=false
Re: Suppressing pain techniques
compendium of the best exercises and stretches for sitting meditators for full lotus and any sitting posture
https://lucid24.org/misc/qigor/eight-pi ... index.html
Learn to meditate in all postures, switch between standing, chair sitting, and walking as needed to relieve pain.
Sitting through pain in small doses (a few minutes) can be good for training mental toughness, but understand that you're doing damage to the body.
I've seen the results of hundreds and thousands of burmese meditation mentality sitting meditators who push through pain and ignore it for long periods, and as a result sustain long term back, knee, leg damage.
I've even experienced some of this myself. You push through sitting leg pain too much, it starts killing off tissue and nerves, and that affects your ability to even walk and stand without stumbling and being clumsy. I've seen plenty of monsatics following burmese style sitting regiments for 6-10 hours a day, and I see them often trip and stumble for no reason, but I know the reason. The nerves have been damaged.
Those health problems take a really long time to heal.
And the problem with damaging nerves, is that when you become numb to pain, then you lose your feedback system telling you that you need to change postures. So when I was in the process of extending the length of my full lotus sitting from 1 hr to 2 hours, I did some damage because I wasn't getting the pain signals that healthy nerves would send.
As a result, I had to stop doing any cross leg sitting for about a year waiting for the nerve and leg damage to heal.
So everyone has to figure out the right balance of switching between walking, standing, sitting, lying down as needed, by trial and error.
And doing daily exercises and stretches to soften the body up.
www.lucid24.org/sted : ☸Lucid24.org STED definitions
www.audtip.org/audtip: Audio Tales in Pāli: ☸Dharma and Vinaya in many languages
www.audtip.org/audtip: Audio Tales in Pāli: ☸Dharma and Vinaya in many languages
Re: Suppressing pain techniques
Yes, this works very well for me too, especially focussing on accepting it in a loving way.
The other way is to just do metta the way you normally do, once the feelings of metta become strong in the body, all pain disappears, it's like a pain killer.
'Suppose there were a beetle, a dung-eater, full of dung, gorged with dung, with a huge pile of dung in front of him. He, because of that, would look down on other beetles: 'Yes, sirree! I am a dung-eater, full of dung, gorged with dung, with a huge pile of dung in front of me!' - SN 17.5