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Streen
Quote:“Pain can be a drug.”
“For myself, I say that pain is itself a god: the taskmaster of life. Pain cracks the whip and all that lives will move. The most basic instinct of life is to retreat from pain. To hide from it. If going here hurts, even a granite slug will go over there; to live is to be a slave to pain. To be ‘beyond pain’ is to be dead, yes?”
“No lesson is truly learned until it has been purchased with pain.”
–Vergere“Suffering is the fuel in the engine of civilization.
Now he begins to understand: because pain is a god…But it is also a teacher, and a bridge. It can be a slave master, and break you—and it can be the power that makes you unbreakable. It is all these things, and more.
At the same time.
What it is depends on who you are.”–Excerpts from Traitor
Jax
In the Marine Corps we were told things like “Pain is weakness leaving the body”. There are certainly times when pain is necessary. However I have no desire to go through anything like what Jacen went through in that book. I know there was benefit from it, but I think I’ll pass. But I also don’t see the need for that in this lifetime. Maybe I’ll need that kind of strength in another life, but hopefully not this one. I’d rather avoid unnecessary pain.
LOL No, I can’t say I want to experience that level of pain either that Jacen did
I simply posted that quote because I learned a lot from it, as it applies to my life. I experienced pain in ways I never previously imagined as a result of my car accident, and I believe that while I certainly didn’t want to experience it, nor do I ever again want to, it changed me for the better. You can’t appreciate the little things in life until you have a part of it taken from you.You know, I’ve been doing a lot of regrouping over the past 2 days thanks to a person that has come into my life in the past few days. And I think I just realized why I don’t have tons of pain in my life, like other people. And please don’t take this as any hit on you Streen, or anyone else, because it’s not a judgement at all. But I think I came into this life already strong. I knew this life I would need it from the get go, and thus came in with a lot of it so I could be the source of strength for others. Primarily this applies to my wife and a few key friends who are going through a lot of different kinds of pain. I get to be that person that helps them pick themselves back up. This wouldn’t work as well if I didn’t have this innate strength.
Now, I do go through things that make me stronger, but this natural resilience is so crucial for my life. Therefore, I have a feeling I won’t be going through anything that’s to the extent of those who go through years of cancer, or car accidents that take years to recover from. It wouldn’t do me as much good as it does others.
Does that make sense? We all chose the circumstances of our lives. And I bet, if you’ve gone through some really tough times, you can find someone around you who was able to give you the support you needed so you weren’t crushed by your life. Perhaps they went through similar situations, but there are probably people that didn’t have to. Those of us in that situation have agreed to incarnate in this lifetime to take on the pain of others and be their crutch for a time. Our struggle is then to learn the difference between being a temporary crutch and an enabler that actually makes others weaker.
What does everyone else think? Lol, I wouldn’t share this if I didn’t hope it would make people think about the situations and people in their lives after all.
Anonymous
Streen – you always pick such interesting topics. I don’t always join them but I do read them.
Pain and strength are often put together. I have a really high pain tolerance, almost dangerously so, and it’s both physical…and seems to be emotional as well. But I would not say I’m especailly strong, but I understand pain, and understand it is a friend, and also understand not to be afraid of it.
In my case I suspect it’s hereditary.
But when I see people in pain I swear I feel it more than when it happens to me. I was a nurse assistant through my college years, and it just about did me in… I loved it, love medicine and helping people, but mentally I couldn’t handle seeing so many people in pain that I could do nothing to help. (See? I’m not that strong…).
Causing another pain… That is another difficult one. You can’t always prevent it. But those who enjoy causing others pain? Or seem not to notice they do so… I have a hard time reconsiling this.
Interesting topic…and answers!
Jedi Lawhead
Pain is the great refiner of the Self, to me the key is not withstanding it but understanding and embracing it. Learning from pain is essential, helping others through their pain, sharing their pain, is just as essential.
Icarus
It is also important to look at where the pain is localized. If this is a mental pain, then one needs to look at the beliefs/triggers/desires/attachments part of themself. If it is physical, then there is a spiritual reason behind the ailment. Look at where the pain is, figure out the spiritual lesson behind it, then once faced and dealt with, the pain just goes away forever.
So, yes, pain is a refiner of the self- and a darned good one.
Magdelene Nashira
Pain can be a teacher. In my life one of the pain things I live with is a muscle condition on the bottom of my feet. My friend prayed over them for healing. The pain went away, but the condition didn’t. Time went on, they only have problems when I stand on them too long, but as long as I don’t overdo it there is no pain. I tried healing prayer over them myself with no results. Lately I got a job that required me to stand on my feet. I was determined I was going to push myself through it. The pain and swelling returned. While sitting at home nursing my feet one night I watched a televangelist who suggested that our words have power and speaking to a condition can cause healing. So I started talking to the muscles in my feet and my whole body. The pain went away. The condition did not. The next night at work the same thing happend. Came home with hurt and swollen up feet again. Spoke to my feet again. The pain went away. Then I spoke to the feet and told the condition causing the pain to be gone. But it didn’t work. It still continues that I talk to the feet, the pain goes away, the condition doesn’t. So I started to ask God the natural question. Why? I got no answer for several days. Finally I hear the voice of the spirit ask me one night, “Why do you think it is that you were only able to heal the pain?” No answer. Just asked me my own question. Obviously it’s something He wants left that way and I am to puzzle why. I’m still puzzling this, but I got part of the answer one day when I went to the grocery store and I sensed out of the corner of my eye an employee coming out of the back room and was thinking of asking him where something was. But as I turned to see him I realized he was carrying a really heavy box of eggs and I could sense in him the same kind of “working while in pain” issue that I have. I don’t know exactly where his pain was, but I could see the stress in him and I could sense it wasn’t normal muscle strain. It was more like mine. I decided to forget about my question for the time being because I realized me bugging him at that precise moment would add considerably to his suffering. So I went away and found someone else to help me find it. So one thing I think pain can teach us is how to be senstive to the pain in other people. Then I think it also kind of teaches us endurance and how to live in hope when things seem hopeless. Pain is also a natural deterance, though. So I’m wondering if somehow this job was wrong for me anyway and thus God’s timing was as it was. I’ll figure it out eventually, which gives me something to ponder and strive for.
Disease always has a root beyond the physical. You’re removing the symptom but not the cause. And since you’re not addressing the cause of the actual condition, you won’t be able to pray it away. That would cause you to miss the lesson entirely.
Your feet are your foundation. What in your foundation causes you pain? That could be your youth, your beliefs, your emotions, something related to the concept of your foundation. Or it could have to do with motion, as feet provide us motion and thus a level of freedom. These are just some quick ideas that came to me now. God isn’t giving you this condition, you gave yourself this condition through some sort of dischord within you. The reason it isn’t being taken from you is because you have to correct the dischord within. Otherwise, it could be removed and it would come right back. It’s like cutting off the top of a weed without pulling up the roots. It returns before too long.
Hmm, I had never really thought of it that way before. That could be. I’ll put some meditative thought into my foundation and any possible discord.
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