Wednesday, March 26, 2014

A Tough Teacher

I once saw a Youtube video of an “Enlightened Teacher” who said that if we are fully in the present moment we will never feel any pain. I admit, I muttered at the screen, “Oh yeah, put your hand on the table here and let’s see what happens if I just give it a little rap with a hammer.”

Most of us understand the difference between pain and suffering. Pain is the searing agony that has ripped me out of sleep for ten nights in a row between two and six am, a silent scream from nerves in different parts of my body. It’s not new, although I admit it has been awhile since I’ve had the acute pain that is sometimes part of the chronic illness that has been part of my life for thirty years (CFS/ME/FM.) 

As with other times the particular precipitating cause is a mystery, which is both frustrating and hopeful- presumably it could end as unexpectedly as it began.

What surprises me is how- even with all these years of experience (some years being much better than others)- pain can still be a challenge. It wears me out, muddies my thinking, makes me grumpy and scares me (particularly by Day 10.)

Sometimes pain- emotional or physical- can be useful, can point us toward something that needs to be tended, healed. But after three decades my faith in the usefulness of these periods of inexplicable and acute agony has waned. When it feels as if muscles are being pulled from bones or a heated ice pick is being inserted into an eye socket, all spiritual aspirations go out the window. I just want the pain to stop. So I do the things I know sometimes help (and believe me, there really isn’t anything I have not tried- and some things do help to some degree, some of the time,) and I wait for the pain to diminish.

But the real challenge is to keep the suffering in check. Suffering is the fear-fueled-speculative-stories that pain stirs- that this will never end, that I will not be able to bear it, that I've done something "wrong" to cause this, that the pain will stop me from ever doing the things I love (like writing and studying.) These kinds of frantic mental meanderings pop up and create suffering when my guard is down and the pain is high- often just as I wake up.

This is all I really know about stopping suffering: I have to be simultaneously firm and tender with the franticness that arises if I am to cope with the pain in this moment and not drive myself over the cliff of unbearable agony. 

So I speak to myself as I would to anyone I love, whispering to the inner voice that is hypothesizing unending anguish and predicting imminent disaster: “Shhhhh. . . .breathe. You cannot know what the next hour or day will bring. Stay here, stay with your breath. What do you hear?. . . . The breath moving in and out of the body, bringing life; the children in the park; a lone robin singing spring into being. Soften around the pain. There. . . . let it be as it is. . . . do not pull away . . .Another breath. . . and another. . . . one at a time. . . each one softer. . . . . lean into the breath and the pain. . . . . let it be. . . ." 

And I pray, I call on the ancestors who love me, the powers of Love and Goodness and Healing and the divine Presence that is called God, the Sacred Mystery, the Great Mother to hold me, to help me. And I keep praying, tears streaming down my face, slowly feeling myself held by something larger, a Love that can help me bear all pain and turn away from suffering.

Pain is tough teacher. It can stir frantic suffering or teach boundless compassion. Most often I find it creates some of both. But the fact that the compassion can ease the suffering is what cracks me open to the blessing of being human, is what opens the door to an impossible gratitude that carries me to the next breath and the next. . . . 

Oriah House (c) 2014

12 comments:

  1. you are extraordinarily brave! and I want to share a healing modality with you that could help. It's called Biontology, based on homeopathy, but so much better. I have been cured of virtually every physical issue, debilitating chronic neck and back pain, respiratory problems, chronic fatigue etc. I know this sounds amazing, but check it out for yourself. Here's a video that tells more http://vimeo.com/30688984
    there are practitioners all over the world..on the website is a list www.biontology.com I have been helped so much by your writings over the years and now hope I can return the favor....with love, Satya

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  2. This meditation and teaching arrived just as I was feeling that very helpless hopelessness you describe, Oriah, as a spate of remedy-resistant migraines bedevil me. Having had them all my long life, I do manage well when there's an upsurge -- usually. However, not lately. The inner howl that believes it's entitled to relief NOW has been drowning out the solacing voice of acceptance. Thanks for evoking it again. I will nurture it so it can nurture the part of me aching with resentment as well as pain. Blessings, as always, to you for your insights and precious words.

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    1. Merrikate, may the pain ease, may you be free of suffering. And yes indeed- some days are better than others (and it's not always clear why) when it comes to managing.

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  3. This has been very touching, Oriah, and reminded me of a time in my midthirties when I suffered from Chronic Pain Disorder for two years. The next time a pain attack lingers, please feel held by all the souls out here who know what you are talking about. Probably the experience of physical pain is different, but yet I know what you are talking about. You are so brave. I pray for a small wonder for you. Pain attacks less frequent, less strong or shorter would be a great relief, woudn't they? "You cannot know what the next hour or day will bring", Oriah! A big hug from me.

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    1. Thank you Nora, and the pattern of pain changes continuously so less frequent, less strong and shorter are real possibilities :-)

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  4. My heart goes out to you, Oriah. I'm not sure what the purpose of this pain is of course, but I do know that chronic pain is terribly wearing and difficult. May you find peace and more times free of pain. xox

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  5. A friend has sent me your article Oriah, and I recognise this state so well. I think what I'd like to add is that pain absolutely chains you to your body and "gravity" becomes something you are constantly aware of. You can't get rid of the weight of your physical embodiment as it creaks and aches, and cripples your mobility, - mine on a long term basis, from when I was 25 to now, 30 years on.
    Having said that, I have through suffering been crushed open.

    I now write in notebooks, every morning at 5.00 or so when the world is there waiting in patience and peace, about the beautiful things I see have, experience. In exhalting these things, I notice that I become more and more receptive and beauty comes to me unexpectedly, and happiness permeates my life regardless of the pain, and regardless of what is going on. All hell can be breaking loose, and I know that all is well.
    I shall never give up loving creation as in loving creation, I find my balm.
    Thank you for your words.

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    1. So glad you have found a practise that helps you open to beauty. I too use writing as one of my practises to be here fully and open to awe.

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  6. I read this article at a time everything was falling apart in my life. Thank you for it lifted me up

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