Pain and meditation

[lostsoul13]

How does one practice meditation from of the state of pain? —-Or pain as a meditation state and complete oneness with the perception of pain?

[beginners_mind]

I take it this is for chronic pain of some kind and you have consulted a health practitioner. I like what Deepak Chopra says "pain is a crying out for awareness". He means by this that pain happens when you are not giving enough attention to a part of yourself, ignoring it, and the remedy can be focusing your attention on the painful part.

You can try this by first being aware of the exact location of the pain, and get an image of it in your mind, then become aware that the rest of your body is experiencing peace, and while experiencing and identifying with this peaceful part, surround the small area of pain with the peaceful part and just wait. Eventually (be patient and don't force it - this is the meditative part) the peaceful part will flood into the pain and disolve it, and the pain will suddenly reveal to you what it was that you were ignoring. I've done this twice and have been amazed at how it works.

The other meditative approach to pain that I've read about is the one practiced by Vipassana, where they recommend focusing all your attention on the pain and try to find the exact place and source of the pain, keep searching for the exact spot where the pain arises from. Keep going deeper and deeper. Do this for 15-30 mins as a mediation. Eventually you realise the pain doesn't really have a source and it disolves. I tried this with a bad headache once and after 30 minutes I suddenly saw an image of a marble column holding up a roof and the column suddenly fell over, the structure collapsed and the headache was gone.

[Joymiswealthy]

thanks for sharing this!