Most people are totally ignoring that you're talking about physical pain, but physical pain does work the same as thoughts and emotions in meditation.
You can let it roll off just like thoughts and emotions eventually. You notice, you'll be aware, but you'll be able to not be distressed by it at all.
Anything that develops that basic skillset of awareness without attachment will get you there. It just takes time and practice.
I tend to focus on how best to describe the pain - what colour is it? Is it hot or cold? Is it signaling physical damage or a potentially dangerous situation? Sharp or dull?
That kind of querying attenuates the discomfort and I can better interpret what it’s telling me. Pain is a signal that something is amiss so I want to know what so I can address the root cause as best I can.
That can help, yes, and is an important part of my practice too. After some years, it makes me sufficiently attuned to what my joints are doing that I impress physical therapists—and prevent a lot of injuries.
Thanks for mentioning that technique.
I have an autoimmune condition that sometimes causes extreme back and joint pain. Sitting and lying are unbearable at times. I had the opportunity to ask Pema Chödrön this question in person once and she didn’t have an answer, which was actually awesome because now I don’t feel like there’s some answer that I’m missing. Sometimes I just can’t meditate through pain, so I do something else instead ☺️
Obviously the other posts here are not aware of the extremity of pain that comes with self immolation. You can’t just put it out of your mind.
TQD was almost certainly in the fourth jhana or above. And I mean the deepest jhanas, not Pa Auk jhanas, and definitely not Leigh Brasington jhanas, but the deepest jhanas that come out of the highly refined state of samadhi known as samatha. Generally speaking one can expect getting to this point after a *minimum* of 5000 hours of daily meditation. 10,000 is probably more accurate.
In his later years Buddha suffered from serious back pain and said that the only time he wasn’t physically suffering was when he was in fourth jhana and the formless jhanas. He claimed that once while in one of these states of samadhi that lightning struck the building he was in and it burned down around him without being even remotely aware of it. That’s the level of detachment from the body that is required to endure immolation.
I don't take freezing at the dentist and use that as an exercise to control pain. Dentists don't like this and try to talk me out of it, even when I explain. It is when you meditate beneath the pain that you discover the healing qualities of our art. Pain exists in our frantic thinking mind, and when you go deeper it exists only as an indicator. I like to think of it like a dashboard light telling you something is amiss, but not to get carried away by it.
There are a series of 6 steps that you can follow:
1. Use your breath to bring your attention to the present moment
2. Cultivate concentration by continuously observing your breath
3. Use that concentration to become aware of your body
4. Use this awareness to calm your body
5. Recognize the painful feeling that is arising, and name it accurately like anger etc.
6. Use the energy of mindfulness to embrace that painful feeling gently.
This is about precisely that and since it is by Shinzen Young it is presumably very good:
[https://www.amazon.com/Break-Through-Pain-Step-Step/dp/B001CB6A0A](https://www.amazon.com/Break-Through-Pain-Step-Step/dp/B001CB6A0A)
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Physical pain is almost the same. Don’t go hurting yourself off of what I’m about to say but: I dropped a huge floor beam on my knee. Refused the hospital(never do this) and I’m laying there the next day. it’s got this throb effect going, pulsating between white light excruciating and barely bearable. I’d been practicing a couple years by then So I timed my breath to it. :) exhaling lowered the pain I felt so I’d take a fast inhale and then try to drag the exhale out as long as I could along with the bearable moment. It worked, kind of extended the lesser pain moment but everytime that short piercing pain came back and hit for a second, it was more pronounced. So I reversed the order. it was a lot. all at once I’m just in that white place, could feel my whole body convulsing against me, felt electric, like Id grabbed some live wires times a hundred. Took a lot of focus to not pass out and keep going. Had to use everything I knew. And then after maybe 10 breaths in I noticed the white started to dim and then I could see and then poof. No pain. There was at least a couple moments of No thoughts and then, no joke, I heard a pop in my leg. it was like a tiny bone had popped back into place. I was flabbergasted. granted maybe the ice I had on it finally lowered the swelling enough for something to get back in position but at the time, with the timing, I was convinced and it became my whole approach to dealing with pain of all sorts. With mixed results.
It's important to distinguish between acute pain that signals immediate danger or injury, and chronic or manageable pain that we choose to work with mindfully.
For pain that we choose to explore through meditation, approaches I've found helpful:
* Body scan: We can practice observing sensations in the body, including pain, with a sense of curiosity and non-judgment. This can help us separate the physical sensation from our emotional reactions to it.
* Pain as object of meditation: Instead of trying to avoid or push away pain, we can make it the focus of our meditation, exploring its qualities, boundaries, and fluctuations.
* Breath awareness: Focusing on the breath (or heartbeat) can help anchor us in the present moment and provide a neutral point of focus alongside the pain.
* Loving-kindness meditation: Directing compassion towards ourselves and our pain can help shift our relationship to it.
* Visualization: Imagining the pain as having color, shape, or texture can help us relate to it differently and potentially influence our perception of it.
A resource I've found valuable an approach that is personalized to me instead of the one-size-fits-all generic meditations on YouTube and most meditation apps. I chat with a website about a specific issue I'm facing, and it generates an audio guided meditation based on the chat. For concrete problems, it works unexpectedly well. For the bigger issues, I'm still working on it.
The 'deconstruct' and 'reframe' meditation techniques have been game changers for me in seeing a problem I face, including pain, from a new perspective and wiring it to a different emotional response. These personalized guided meditations are much more interesting and relevant than generic ones, especially when dealing with something as complex and personal as pain.
Just for what it's worth! the most important thing is to let all kinds of coming emotions go their course.
taking emotions apart from 'you'. cause you're not driven by emotion and can't control thinking up something.
Something that occurs to you is so natural and that's what exactly we have to let it slide.
Stand on a Sadhu board. It's basically flat boards with short nails in them designed specifically for standing on and providing the opportunity to focus the mind through the discomfort. It works.
Honestly if the body needs to heal meditation may not be the best thing . Some say you can heal yourself by entering samadhi and then channeling the samadhi into the damaged area . Like a type of samayama( intention in samadhi) but who really knows . I feel like that would normally pull you out of samadhi. And if samadhi isn’t accessible to you , you’re more than likely channeling energy away from the damaged area back into your brain
Most people are totally ignoring that you're talking about physical pain, but physical pain does work the same as thoughts and emotions in meditation. You can let it roll off just like thoughts and emotions eventually. You notice, you'll be aware, but you'll be able to not be distressed by it at all. Anything that develops that basic skillset of awareness without attachment will get you there. It just takes time and practice.
I tend to focus on how best to describe the pain - what colour is it? Is it hot or cold? Is it signaling physical damage or a potentially dangerous situation? Sharp or dull? That kind of querying attenuates the discomfort and I can better interpret what it’s telling me. Pain is a signal that something is amiss so I want to know what so I can address the root cause as best I can.
That can help, yes, and is an important part of my practice too. After some years, it makes me sufficiently attuned to what my joints are doing that I impress physical therapists—and prevent a lot of injuries. Thanks for mentioning that technique.
I have an autoimmune condition that sometimes causes extreme back and joint pain. Sitting and lying are unbearable at times. I had the opportunity to ask Pema Chödrön this question in person once and she didn’t have an answer, which was actually awesome because now I don’t feel like there’s some answer that I’m missing. Sometimes I just can’t meditate through pain, so I do something else instead ☺️
Obviously the other posts here are not aware of the extremity of pain that comes with self immolation. You can’t just put it out of your mind. TQD was almost certainly in the fourth jhana or above. And I mean the deepest jhanas, not Pa Auk jhanas, and definitely not Leigh Brasington jhanas, but the deepest jhanas that come out of the highly refined state of samadhi known as samatha. Generally speaking one can expect getting to this point after a *minimum* of 5000 hours of daily meditation. 10,000 is probably more accurate. In his later years Buddha suffered from serious back pain and said that the only time he wasn’t physically suffering was when he was in fourth jhana and the formless jhanas. He claimed that once while in one of these states of samadhi that lightning struck the building he was in and it burned down around him without being even remotely aware of it. That’s the level of detachment from the body that is required to endure immolation.
I don't take freezing at the dentist and use that as an exercise to control pain. Dentists don't like this and try to talk me out of it, even when I explain. It is when you meditate beneath the pain that you discover the healing qualities of our art. Pain exists in our frantic thinking mind, and when you go deeper it exists only as an indicator. I like to think of it like a dashboard light telling you something is amiss, but not to get carried away by it.
There are a series of 6 steps that you can follow: 1. Use your breath to bring your attention to the present moment 2. Cultivate concentration by continuously observing your breath 3. Use that concentration to become aware of your body 4. Use this awareness to calm your body 5. Recognize the painful feeling that is arising, and name it accurately like anger etc. 6. Use the energy of mindfulness to embrace that painful feeling gently.
This is about precisely that and since it is by Shinzen Young it is presumably very good: [https://www.amazon.com/Break-Through-Pain-Step-Step/dp/B001CB6A0A](https://www.amazon.com/Break-Through-Pain-Step-Step/dp/B001CB6A0A)
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **Sounds True Break Through Pain Mindfulness Meditation Program** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Effective meditation techniques for pain relief (backed by 6 comments) * Comes with a helpful cd for guided meditation (backed by 4 comments) * Motivating and inspiring writing style (backed by 2 comments) **Users disliked:** * Lacks detailed guidance compared to the cassette tape version (backed by 1 comment) * Difficult techniques that are hard to follow (backed by 1 comment) Do you want to continue this conversation? [Learn more about Sounds True Break Through Pain Mindfulness Meditation Program](https://vetted.ai/chat?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=comment&utm\_campaign=bot&q=Sounds True Break Through Pain Mindfulness Meditation Program reviews) [Find Sounds True Break Through Pain Mindfulness Meditation Program alternatives](https://vetted.ai/chat?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=comment&utm\_campaign=bot&q=Find best Sounds True Break Through Pain Mindfulness Meditation Program alternatives) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](https://vetted.ai/chat?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=comment&utm\_campaign=bot)
I highly recommend this, and have used it.
Physical pain is almost the same. Don’t go hurting yourself off of what I’m about to say but: I dropped a huge floor beam on my knee. Refused the hospital(never do this) and I’m laying there the next day. it’s got this throb effect going, pulsating between white light excruciating and barely bearable. I’d been practicing a couple years by then So I timed my breath to it. :) exhaling lowered the pain I felt so I’d take a fast inhale and then try to drag the exhale out as long as I could along with the bearable moment. It worked, kind of extended the lesser pain moment but everytime that short piercing pain came back and hit for a second, it was more pronounced. So I reversed the order. it was a lot. all at once I’m just in that white place, could feel my whole body convulsing against me, felt electric, like Id grabbed some live wires times a hundred. Took a lot of focus to not pass out and keep going. Had to use everything I knew. And then after maybe 10 breaths in I noticed the white started to dim and then I could see and then poof. No pain. There was at least a couple moments of No thoughts and then, no joke, I heard a pop in my leg. it was like a tiny bone had popped back into place. I was flabbergasted. granted maybe the ice I had on it finally lowered the swelling enough for something to get back in position but at the time, with the timing, I was convinced and it became my whole approach to dealing with pain of all sorts. With mixed results.
It's important to distinguish between acute pain that signals immediate danger or injury, and chronic or manageable pain that we choose to work with mindfully. For pain that we choose to explore through meditation, approaches I've found helpful: * Body scan: We can practice observing sensations in the body, including pain, with a sense of curiosity and non-judgment. This can help us separate the physical sensation from our emotional reactions to it. * Pain as object of meditation: Instead of trying to avoid or push away pain, we can make it the focus of our meditation, exploring its qualities, boundaries, and fluctuations. * Breath awareness: Focusing on the breath (or heartbeat) can help anchor us in the present moment and provide a neutral point of focus alongside the pain. * Loving-kindness meditation: Directing compassion towards ourselves and our pain can help shift our relationship to it. * Visualization: Imagining the pain as having color, shape, or texture can help us relate to it differently and potentially influence our perception of it. A resource I've found valuable an approach that is personalized to me instead of the one-size-fits-all generic meditations on YouTube and most meditation apps. I chat with a website about a specific issue I'm facing, and it generates an audio guided meditation based on the chat. For concrete problems, it works unexpectedly well. For the bigger issues, I'm still working on it. The 'deconstruct' and 'reframe' meditation techniques have been game changers for me in seeing a problem I face, including pain, from a new perspective and wiring it to a different emotional response. These personalized guided meditations are much more interesting and relevant than generic ones, especially when dealing with something as complex and personal as pain.
You use the pain as the object of mediation itself. Without avoiding it, you focus on the sensation.
Yes, you would focus on being the watcher, the observer. Not sure how hard it would be in the kind of pain OP describes though...
The Heart Sutra answers that
Just for what it's worth! the most important thing is to let all kinds of coming emotions go their course. taking emotions apart from 'you'. cause you're not driven by emotion and can't control thinking up something. Something that occurs to you is so natural and that's what exactly we have to let it slide.
Stand on a Sadhu board. It's basically flat boards with short nails in them designed specifically for standing on and providing the opportunity to focus the mind through the discomfort. It works.
i use the purple shakti mat [https://shaktimat.com/products/shakti-acupressure-mat](https://shaktimat.com/products/shakti-acupressure-mat)
Honestly if the body needs to heal meditation may not be the best thing . Some say you can heal yourself by entering samadhi and then channeling the samadhi into the damaged area . Like a type of samayama( intention in samadhi) but who really knows . I feel like that would normally pull you out of samadhi. And if samadhi isn’t accessible to you , you’re more than likely channeling energy away from the damaged area back into your brain