On 2/8/2012 10:30 AM, ED wrote:
As per zen, how does one 'deal with' or relate to or be with acute
physical pain or chronic physical pain or emotional pain or feelings
such as anxiety or fear?
How does one not deal with these things?
This whole issue of dealing with/not dealing with what arises in mind is
'suffering'. Delusional attempts to choose something other than what is
present. A way "to relate to", and struggle with, everything seen to be
"other" (and thought of as mine/not mine).
Be mindful of what arises, without grasping or rejecting. Cessation
allows them to pass in the same way mindfulness noted their arising.
Effortlessly (so with no perceived control over how and when).
These are not actions you take. Actions too arise and pass. You will
naturally take whatever actions fit what ever else appears.
Interdependent. Impermanent.
Suchness.
Any apparent shift in relation changes nothing/prevents nothing arising.
Change takes care of itself. The suffering ends.
Painful sensations, are still painful sensations. Pain is pain, not "my
pains". No attachments to them, or to their ending, are formed.
Nothing added, nothing taken away.
Nothing lacks.
Preferences for no pain remain. Pain still informs us. More directly
(not really what people are seeking, is it?).
A life without pain is not a life. A life of suffering is not a life.
To 'deal with' or not, is not really an option. It only appears so. To
choose either is to choose to suffer. Seeing this, the question makes no
sense and falls away, ending the search for answers.
K
PS - Offering a similar caveat to Bill's - I cannot speak for 'Zen' or
from any other position. I simply speak, reflecting. A one line
response already says too much, but I still ramble sometimes.
Circumlocution of the pointless point.
