Question:

Pranam Ektaji, is there a way to dodge body pain, being the witness, and not feel the pain at all?

Answer:

Witnessing means to be there and know. Witnessing does NOT mean to be there, but ‘skip knowing the unpleasant’. Hence, it follows that:

• • There is no way to dodge the pain of the Dehabuddhi or ‘I am the body’ state-of-mind.
  • There is no way to dodge the pain of Manobuddhi or ‘I am the mind’ state-of-mind.

These states of the mind have already been projected, dear. Hence, they will need to be perceived until the end of the pain-wave. One must perceive what one projects.

So what does a sage do when body-pain or mental-pain arises? 

The sage holds onto the wisdom that the pain-wave might have arisen; it is happening, but it is NOT happening to me, because there is no ‘Individual-Me’. There is merely an observation field, not separate from the observed.

• • When Ramana Maharshi was ill, he said, ‘There is pain, but I am not suffering’.

He was able to SEE every arising, whether pleasant or unpleasant, as impersonal. He did not deny the appearance of the unpleasant, just like you cannot deny the appearance of the dream-tiger-bite. At the same time, you cannot deny the disappearance of the dream-tiger, including the bite mark.

• • Did the tiger really exist? No! It appeared and disappeared. Isn’t every single event of the so-called Waking-life similar? Doesn’t every Waking-event only appear and disappear? A few months down the line, it will be forgotten like the dream tiger.

That is the wisdom from which the Sage operates. He is not nearsighted or myopic. He does not lack foresight. He realizes the invisible covert truth behind what is apparent. To live a spiritual life means to constantly SEE, not blindly believe, that ‘I am not the body’ and ‘I am not the mind’.

Then it will become easy to SEE that the toothache cannot be dodged. That pain will be there until its shelf-life expires, but the identification with it of ‘mineness’ can be overcome.

• • Recognize that the pain is not present in dreams and sleep. It means that the pain is a waking-arising only.
  • Recognize that there is a naturally dispassionate core within that is untouched by the pain, even when it arises and falls. When you abide as the core, there will be no suffering of ‘mineness’.

Take this as an opportunity to arrive at the wisdom yourself: There is pain, but I am not suffering.