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If one has constant physical pain and the irritation of it, the boredom of it, the agony of it, how can one go beyond?

If one has constant physical pain and the irritation of it, the boredom of it, the agony of it, how can one go beyond?

From Public Talk 7, Saanen, 24 July 1966

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If one has constant physical pain and the irritation of it, the boredom of it, the agony of it, how can one go beyond? I am afraid one cannot. If one has constant pain, one finds a good doctor, a first-class doctor who is not just a drug merchant. They might help you. If one has constant pain, one can learn to disassociate from the pain. Our life is a resistance, a defence; we are fighting everything, building a wall around ourselves; but if one accepts it, one goes with the pain. Everyone has had pain – that is an unfortunate occurrence in life. But one can begin to be disassociated with it if you can look at it, not resist it. At night, you wake up because a dog is barking, a machine is making noise or a radio is blaring out some absurd stuff. The instinct is to resist it, to get angry with it, to be irritated by it. But if you listen without resistance, just listen to it, go with it, move with it, you will see that this noise is no longer affecting you. In the same way, one can look at one’s pain, one’s toothache, the incessant, constant pain, and one can observe it objectively. Then one can perhaps go beyond it.

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