Transcending Physical Pain by Avoiding Mental Pain

Monks, the uninstructed worldling feels a pleasant feeling, a painful feeling, and a neither painful-nor-pleasant feeling. The instructed Noble Disciple too feels a pleasant feeling, a painful feeling, and a neither painful-nor-pleasant feeling. Therein, Monks, what is the distinction, the disparity, the difference between the instructed Noble Disciple and the uninstructed worldling

‘Venerable Sir, our Teachings are rooted in The Perfectly Enlightened One, guided by The Perfectly Enlightened One, taken refuge in The Perfectly Enlightened One. It would be good if The Perfectly Enlightened One would clear up the meaning of this statement. Having heard it from him, the Monks will remember it.’

Then listen and attend closely, Monks, I will speak.

‘Yes, Venerable Sir,’ the Monks replied. The Perfectly Enlightened One said this:

Monks, when the uninstructed worldling is being contacted by a painful feeling, he sorrows, grieves, and has displeasure; he weeps beating his breast and becomes distraught. He feels two feelings — a bodily one and a mental one.

Suppose they were to strike a man with a dart, and then they would strike him immediately afterwards with a second dart, so that the man would feel a feeling caused by two darts. So too, when the uninstructed worldling is being contacted by a painful feeling … he feels two feelings — a bodily one and a mental one.

Being contacted by that same painful feeling, he has aversion towards it. When he has aversion towards painful feelings, the underlying tendency to aversion towards painful feelings lies behind this. Being contacted by a painful feeling, he seeks excitement in sensual pleasure.

For what reason?

Because the uninstructed worldling does not know of any escape from painful feelings other than sensual pleasure. When he seeks excitement in sensual pleasure, the underlying tendency to crave for pleasant feelings lies behind this. He does not understand as it really is the cause and the disappearance, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of these feelings. When he does not understand these things, the underlying tendency to ignorance (unknowing of true reality) in regard to neither painful-nor-pleasant feelings lies behind this.

If he feels a pleasant feeling, he feels it attached. If he feels a painful feeling, he feels it attached. If he feels a neither painful-nor-pleasant feeling, he feels it attached.

This, Monks, is called an uninstructed worldling who is attached to birth, aging, and death; who is attached to sorrow, grief, pain, displeasure, and despair; who is attached to discontentedness, I say.

Monks, when the instructed Noble Disciple is contacted by a painful feeling, he does not sorrow, grieve, or have displeasure; he does not weep beating his breast and become distraught. He feels one feeling — a bodily one, not a mental one.

Suppose they were to strike a man with a dart, but they would not strike him immediately afterwards with a second dart, so that the man would feel a feeling caused by one dart only. So too, when the instructed Noble Disciple is contacted by a painful feeling … he feels one feeling — a bodily one, not a mental one.

Being contacted by that same painful feeling, he has no aversion towards it. Since he has no aversion towards painful feelings, the underlying tendency to aversion towards painful feelings does not lie behind this. Being contacted by a painful feeling, he does not seek excitement in sensual pleasure.

For what reason?

Because the instructed Noble Disciple knows of an escape from painful feelings other than sensual pleasure. Since he does not seek excitement in sensual pleasure, the underlying tendency to crave for pleasant feelings does not lie behind this. He understands as it really is the cause and the disappearance, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of these feelings. Since he understands these things, the underlying tendency to ignorance (unknowing of true reality) in regard to neither painful-nor-pleasant feelings does not lie behind this.

If he feels a pleasant feeling, he feels it detached. If he feels a painful feeling, he feels it detached. If he feels a neither painful-nor-pleasant feeling, he feels it detached.

This, Monks, is called a Noble Disciple who is detached from birth, aging, and death; who is detached from sorrow, grief, pain, displeasure, and despair; who is detached from discontentedness, I say.

This, Monks, is the distinction, the disparity, the difference between the instructed Noble Disciple and the uninstructed worldling.

The wise one, learned, does not feel

The pleasant and painful mental feeling.

This is the great difference between

The wise one and the worldling.

For the learned one who has comprehended The Teachings,

Who clearly sees this world and the next,

Desirable things do not provoke his mind,

Towards the undesired he has no aversion.

For him attraction and repulsion no longer exist;

Both have been extinguished, brought to an end.

Having known the dust-free, sorrowless state,

The transcender of existence rightly understands.

(Reference: SN 36.6)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares how experiencing physical and mental pain can be transcended (i.e. overcome) by one who has deeply trained the mind - a Noble Disciple.

During Gotama Buddha’s lifetime, there was a caste system in place that taught people that as they were born into a low or high family, they were either a low or high person in society. This rigid caste system made people believe that if they were of low status, they were essentially a low or somewhat of a worthless individual. But, if they were of a high status, they were a “noble” individual.

People were taught that if they were interested in a spiritual life, they would need to make offerings and payments to Brāhmins to be able to have them pray to the Gods on their behalf. People believed in multiple Gods during The Buddha’s lifetime. People of a low caste were convinced that they were unable to pray to the Gods because of their low status in life and due to that birth, they’d need to give money to the Brāhmin priests to have them pray on their behalf.

The Buddha observed that this was not true and only created opportunity for corruption and false beliefs. He understood that people of all backgrounds and upbringing are capable of attaining Enlightenment. He described his Teachings as “noble”, thus, The Noble Eight Fold Path, and he also referred to Practitioners as “Noble Ones” or a “Noble Disciple”.

The Buddha essentially provided guidance that people should adjust their thinking that being born into a certain family and the material possessions available to them within their family is not an indication of what makes them noble or un-noble. Instead, it is one’s wisdom, moral conduct, and mental discipline that determines if one is wholesome or unwholesome.

In this way, all beings are capable of becoming noble through learning, reflecting, and practicing these Teachings to improve the condition of their mind. The Buddha accepted all individuals as Students no matter what caste they were born into or what moral conduct they had participated in prior to deciding to undertake training in these Teachings. The Buddha was known to accept a prostitute and a murderer into his Community of Practitioners who eventually attained Enlightenment during their lifetime. He did not discriminate based on what family one was born into or past conduct. Instead, he focused on helping all people learn and progress in the development of their life practice to awaken the mind to Enlightenment.

At a time when all of society was discriminating against people of insignificant material possessions, occupations, past conduct, and even gender, The Buddha practiced loving-kindness and compassion towards all beings. He was willing to support anyone who was interested to investigate his Teachings helping them to progress towards Enlightenment through being invited and welcomed to do so within The Community of Practitioners.

A Noble Disciple is a Practitioner who is deeply dedicated and actively progressing to practice The Teachings of The Buddha and is experiencing the results of a more Enlightened mind. We might even think of a Noble Disciple as one who has attained one of The Four Stages of Enlightenment as a Stream-Enterer, Once-Returner, or Non-Returner.

In this Teaching, The Buddha is explaining that a Practitioner who has deeply understood and is practicing his Teachings will not experience physical pain in the same way as an “uninstructed worldling”.

A worldling is an individual who is engrossed in the worries of the world, worldly matters, and material things.

If an uninstructed worldling experiences physical pain, the mind will oftentimes have aversion to the pain seeing it as disagreeable while craving pleasant feelings. The mind will not observe the impermanent nature of the physical pain. Being repulsed by the physical pain the mind will then grasp, long, and yearn for physical comfort through craving pleasant feelings. Due to this, the uninstructed worldling will experience deep mental pain in connection with the physical pain. Through not understanding the impermanent nature of the physical pain and the mind craving for pleasant feelings through wanting permanent comfort of the body, the mind experiences a deeper degree of pain through the combination of physical and mental pain.

The Buddha describes this as being shot with two darts. One dart is the physical pain and the second dart is the mental pain.

The Buddha explains how the second dart is optional and can be avoided by one who is a Noble Disciple (i.e. a Student who deeply understands and is practicing these Teachings). Through not having aversion or being repulsed by the physical pain, a Practitioner can avoid the mental pain minimizing the experience of pain through only experiencing the physical pain, not the mental pain.

A Student who deeply understands and is practicing these Teachings will understand that having aversion to painful feelings does not solve the problem. Instead, they understand the escape from painful feelings is to not crave pleasant feelings. As long as the mind craves pleasant feelings, the mind is inviting painful feelings to be experienced which only intensifies the overall experience of pain. The physical and mental pain combined is much more intense and longer lasting than if one has trained the mind to understand the impermanent nature of the physical pain not needing to experience the mental pain.

The uninstructed worldling’s craving for pleasant feelings intensifies the pain through experiencing the physical and mental pain. But an instructed Noble Disciple will not crave pleasant feelings when experiencing physical pain. The mind will understand that the physical pain is impermanent and choose to not crave pleasant feelings but instead, just observe the physical pain, breathe through it, and not allow the mind to react with discontentedness. A well developed mind can respond calmly with wise decision making that can be applied to resolve the physical pain. This might include medical intervention, medications, body rubs, baths, heating pads, or just breathing through the physical pain so that the mind is not shaken up to only experience an intensified version of the pain due to the mental pain and anguish.

There is no reason to inflect pain on the physical body or endure physical pain. A Practitioner can resolve physical pain through wise decision making.

Today, we have a whole range of options to reduce or eliminate physical pain. These interventions will be more impactful or perhaps not even needed when an individual is only experiencing the physical pain rather than the associated mental pain due to lacking a well developed practice of these Teachings.

The more developed one’s practice is, the more readily they will be able to apply the approach described in this Teaching when the physical body is experiencing pain. They will be able to avoid the negative mental reactions associated with the mental pain and instead, respond wisely to address the physical pain.

In this way, one has been shot with a dart - the physical pain. But, they have avoided the second dart, the mental pain, through a well developed practice of these Teachings so that the mind is not shaken up by the physical pain.

Cause: craving/desire/attachment

Disappearance: The Universal Truth of Impermanence

Gratification: The unEnlightened mind’s fetter/taint/pollution of “sensual desire”

Danger: The Universal Truth of Discontentedness

Escape: The Eight Fold Path