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Making the distinction between pain (or even simply discomfort) and suffering, or identifying the difference between a thought/idea that is steeped in ignorance versus one that is providing valuable knowledge/insight, is simple in principle, but the distinction often requires a high level of clear perception and discernment, which is where things fall apart for most people.
If a person is steeped in ignorance, egoism, hatred/aversion, attachment/greed, or fear/clinging to bodily life [the 5 poisons], clear perception and discernment become impossible because that personal has already overidentified with the illusion of Maya instead of dwelling in the clear experience of the undistorted Truth.
The formula for distinguishing pain from suffering and ignorance from knowledge is simply: ignorance is tied to suffering because there is often deeply warped and/or careless attachment to illusion that is involved in maintaining or holding on to a lie, and pain and knowledge (and/or discomfort, as well as any other sensation that one can look at/experience objectively for that matter) are tied to a clear perception of experience that can lead to understanding via the receiving of undistorted feedback from the internal and external environment. Suffering can sometimes include pain, but pain does not have to include suffering. Both pain and suffering can provide valuable information for growth and course correction, but because most people often impulsively (without applying mindful awareness) try to avoid pain (often only after they experience it), and seek pleasure (even when they cannot guarantee it), they, most often, inadvertently create unnecessary suffering as opposed to gaining knowledge from experience instead.
Pain is an inevitable and important part of life. Our species (and almost all other living beings for that matter) evolved to experience pain as a requirement for survival. Without the experience of pain, most humans would not have lived long enough for our species to exist for the 200,000 odd years that we have been here on planet Earth, and most humans would definitely not survive for their entire lives with all of their limbs and/or digits in-tact if they survived beyond childhood at all without experiencing pain.
“Feeling bad,” or experiencing emotional discomfort, is also, as unpleasant as it may initially sound, a form of “pain” that is just necessary feedback for effectively living in relationship to others in society. And your conscience and intuition, which guide this process of feedback, serves as one of the most important forms of intelligence that you posses for social/relational knowledge acquisition.
To advance on the Yogic path, you must become effective at understanding the distinction between suffering and pain so that you can more effectively identify useful feedback within your inner space as opposed to simply acting upon your attached and fearful animal impulses (out of ignorance) which strive to avoid suffering in counterproductive ways by seeking out fleeting/unstainable, and sometimes destructive, pleasurable experiences based on compulsions that are warped and unnatural due to their connection with the conditioning of history, society, and so forth instead of being grounded in the beauty of your higher Nature/Absolute Truth.
Remember: pain is a necessary feedback mechanism, suffering is an unnecessary human fabrication.
If you do, think, or say something harmful, for example, it actually serves you well to feel remorse or shame. Not feeling shame for doing or saying something harmful to yourself or others is a sure sign of ignorance and egoism that will certainly lead to further suffering and negative Karma in the long-run, especially if this disregard becomes a learned and habitual behavior. This explains why psychopaths and sociopaths, who often “turn off,” or become disconnected from, their social-emotional negative feedback abilities create so much suffering within their relationships and society. Psychopaths and sociopaths simply do not have an effectively working conscience. But, as someone who has a working conscience, and emotional capabilities, you possess a highly advanced form of intelligence and it is, therefore, recommended that you use these abilities wisely and effectively by learning how to correctly interpret and implement the feedback that comes from them.
Please be aware, therefore, that the only time that negative (or even positive) feelings become an issue is when you get stuck in a feedback loop that keeps certain emotional states around for longer than is necessary to learn the lesson that they have to provide. You are not well-served clinging to the “good” nor the “bad.” Emotions become destructive problems as opposed to constructive feedback when you begin to over-identify with clinging to or yearning for certain feelings, or, they become outright obstacles when you get stuck in chemical patterns that make heavy feelings habitual, or certain behaviors/thoughts that are grounded in stuck emotional patterns compulsive and difficult to shake as you become more and more conditioned to particular experiences in your mind, creating stronger neurological connections between certain feelings, people, and experiences, that are based on ignorance and mentally constructed illusions that can eventually turn into psycho-emotional traps/bondage that leads to suffering.
When negative feelings are created during times when they are inappropriate, for example, if a person is feeling shame for things that they have no control over, or that they did not do, or that they have no real basis to be ashamed of because the thing that they are ashamed of is natural, like their bodies, menstruation, or their sexuality outside of any destructive sexual behaviors that they may engage in that causes harm to themselves or others, or because they are taking on the warped messages of society to feel shame for things like their hair, skin color, low-paying jobs, etc., only due to warped ideologies/illusions that are perpetuated and maintained by many others outside of them (that they then take on within them, even when these things are not supported by any aspect of Reality), then unnecessary suffering results.
Ignorance (and get used to reading about it from this perspective when you read my work because it is the example that I have come into contact with enough to validate from personal experience as a physically melanated female in this world, and should not make you feel like you are personally being attacked unless you have somehow identified yourself a false sense of self around the dynamics that this creates in society)…for example, expressed in things like putting others down due to the color of their skin, is only a display of deeply seated ignorance and delusion that leads to negative Karmas that create and sustain the added poison of hatred that poison the people who hold these delusions as well as everything that they come into contact with and create (from workplaces to other structures within society…everything becomes toxic).
This form of ignorance creates not only misconceptions about others that unconsciously guides behaviors and leads to stupidity like costuming in blackface (where the joke is actually on the wearer of the blackface), but also causes many to justify absurdities like slavery, unfair treatment, and casual disrespect in the media and real-life. The intoxication of this putrid cocktail of all of the poisons that prevent Liberation and higher awareness is what also leads people to use their artistic skills and resources to do idiotic and nauseating things like create caricatures (like you can still find prominently displayed in the antiques store in the Flagstaff, Arizona mall if the store is still there after Covid) and to use derogatory labels and words like the N-word to dehumanize others in the public spaces of American society…as only an expression of how demented they are “inside”…These examples are such sad and clear examples of ignorance’s influence that they could not be clearer.
Conscience Serves A Higher Purpose | Do Not Let It Get Distorted
If you do something harmful to others, or think harmful thoughts that manifest into behaviors that are steeped in egoism or greed, etc., as opposed to resting in the objective, non-judgmental, Truth as it stands, or behave in a way that is not based on your clear understanding of your undistorted Self (that includes all as a part of you), then, shame or guilt serve a purpose. Shame and/or guilt is a sign that your conscience is working and is prompting you to course-correct, when functioning correctly (meaning that they are not felt at appropriate times and not, for example, experienced due to misplaced dogmas or other mental confusions that arise from warped social influences) they are like pain-receptors that communicate, “take your hand off the hot stove and do not put it there again.”
Due to overidentification with the false-sense-of-self in relationship to others/the world that most people have, however, many often simply feel these feeling at inappropriate times, or deflect these inner signs and turn them into projections or ways to try to hurt others who are “causing them hurt feelings.”
Societies that are unhealthy and unbalanced (pretty much all societies on planet Earth at this point in history in one form or another, unfortunately) create distorted signals that people pick up, which have many people’s conscience simply out-of-whack. Americans, for example, often refuse to reconcile their history of inhume treatment of others in the same ways that other countries have legally and financially reconciled their ills (resorting to only occasional apologies at the bare minimum to help public image), and instead “cry-out” about how others hurt their feelings by bringing up the fact of their harmful Karma (actions that have a cause and effect in the world) in the first place.
Sutra 2.27, however, reminds us that there is hope…and there is also wisdom to be gained on each limb on the Eight-Limbed path, and that this wisdom is what burns out ignorance by supporting one to fully develop the skill of discernment…discernment that is required to avoid suffering by not falsely associating things that are pleasurable temporarily (you know, like free labor and special treatment at the expense of harming others) with things that are “good,” and things that bring pain (like conscience that makes you feel bad about harming others so that you stop and make amends) with things that lead to suffering.
Not becoming inebriated by the poisons of attachment, ignorance, egoism, hatred, clinging to bodily life, etc., will prevent all true seekers of Liberation from living in lowly states of bondage that are sustained by illusory fears that leads to destructive behaviors that manifest in greed, violence, depravity, lack of self-control, and so forth.
Discernment is what supports those who are truly on this path with accepting pain as purification (while not going out of their way to attract it in situations where it is not necessary for growth…remembering, at all times, that the feedback of pain isn’t saying to create more of it). And understanding pain as an inevitable part of life that comes from interfacing with the environment and with those who are steeped in ignorant animal attachments helps you to come to a more relaxed understanding and proactive relationship to it. Discernment is what supports you to receive the feedback that is necessary to align your frame-of-reference to the Truth and to the True Self at all times by listening to your conscience that guides you to clear understanding and your intuition that guides you to higher actions (making sure that these are well-adjusted) and allowing pain to arise as a means to course-correct when necessary (which is not the same as indulging in suffering)…telling you what to stay away from–whether it is certain thoughts, behaviors, places, situations, or people, etc…
To reiterate, pain and suffering are two separate things (as are discomfort and stress which people often incorrectly over-associate with these words), and we can thank all racists and other ignorant people for the important example that they present for our clear understanding of this Truth. (See how everything serves a purpose and can be used for good when one gains a neutral perspective?)
Always remember that, as a conscious creator who strives to be Liberated, you have to take full ownership for yourself in every way that you can. You must get to a place where you are truly free…where no one is responsible for how you feel nor for whether or not you are Liberated…you have to claim your own Liberation by understanding that you are already free. And know that, if we are really honest, no one else truly cares as much about these things when they pertain to you as much as you do, if at all, anyway. Also…remember that no one has the right to intentionally harm you or suppress your right to exist freely either.
Although it is inevitable that those who are living in/with ignorance, egoism, attachment, hatred, and clinging to bodily life due to fear of ego-death (the 5 obstacles/delusions that get in the way of an effective Yoga practice) will inevitable attempt to, or inadvertently, create harm to themselves or others when behaving out of their dysregulated animal nature, any being on the path to liberation must learn how to accept, but not cause pain as a part of his/her Niyama practice…which requires a high level of discernment, because, at times, you may/will have to defend/stand up for your rights (whether to just simply live, or otherwise) or you may have to fight for what is right and may get confused, like Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, about what it means to fight back in a good/non-harmful/non-violent way (even in the midst of “war,” at any level).
Your freedom and happiness cannot be given nor taken by any other human being because all beings are inherently and equally Self-sufficient in Reality; this Truth (as we all “know”) is Self-Evident and does not change (much like all of the Truths of the limbs on the Eight-Limbed Path) based on time nor sentiment. Those fighting to oppress or eliminate others to feel special, or like they can exist freely when unprovoked by anything other than the fears in their own hearts fueled by the hateful/ignorant thoughts in their minds are fighting (for) delusions. And, in the same way that you stand to shine a light on illusions within you, you may be tasked with dissolving the delusions projected onto and around you by firmly standing in the light and against destruction of it in the name of nothing except sheer ignorance.
Knowing the Truth, however, and living it are two different things, but it is only living the Truth that secures the Liberation that you seek.
As we continue to explore the wisdoms gained on the Eight-Limbed Path moving forward, always remember that for True liberation, Yamas and Niyamas are non-negotiable…but you must truly understand what they mean and ensure that your clear conscience, and not distorted dogma, guides you.
While you cannot control what others do, or think, or what Karma they create, you can ensure that your Liberation is secure by staying grounded in the Truth of Sutra 2.5, and never making excuses for any ignorance (and its resulting behaviors) that you exhibit or observe in the world. It is just as ignorant to make excuses for ignorance as it is to live in it.*
*Racism is a fact of American society…a pain that many of us have come to accept and use as purification and Self-Alignment. This should not be a surprise to anyone at this point in history and human understanding. Writing or speaking about racism is not a “scolding” of anyone’s ego, and it certainly can never be a scolding of the Self (the Self is not touched by any of this ignorance). Racism is what it is…a psycho-social mental dis-ease, an ego and socially-sustained karmic monstrosity, a delusion-causing intoxicate that was concocted with the strongest poisons known to effect the human spirit. If the people in society change their distorted psyches and rid themselves of the dis-ease of racism, not feeling like they benefit from being addicted to, dependent on, nor bound by it, then racism’s pervasiveness would cease, but racism’s eradication makes no difference for any true seeker’s personal liberation as long as he/she is not infected by it. What happens within other people remains their responsibility as long as you do not get entangled with them in any way…You cannot, on your own, change anyone else’s inner landscape. You just have to ensure (in order to not to create toxicity within yourself, nor to spread toxicity in the world, as a being who has higher intelligence/awareness) that you do not cause, nor maintain, any unjust harm to yourself and others in ignorant ways…do not let this stress you out too much though…for now, I simply invite you to look clearly at what is reflected through/by racism (just look at it and see what it is), and also do this for other delusions/illusions in Maya as well since there is much to be learned from simply observing, and clearly seeing everything without attachment…Obviously, however, you are invited and encouraged to still maintain compassion when you are inspired to do so (meaning to look at times when you are at full capacity and it does not wear down your psyche to “care too much”) since people did, do, and will suffer as a result of the dis-ease’s existence within the hearts and minds of homo-sapiens for centuries…and that’s a darn shame too, since as co-creators of boundless possibilities, we, as a species can/and could have created something better collectively…with greater awareness and connection, of course…but, I suppose that is the reason why the conditions within our species manifested racism instead of anything else to begin with…the conditions to manifest a more loving world just was/is not fully there within many due to all of the fear, ignorance, greed, and excuses that were cultivated instead. I write this to simply encourage you to keep creating something better than what has been and is currently all around us in this complex, and dysfunctional, human family.
Thank you for reading.
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Investigating multi-dimensional holistic wellness as an inter-disciplinary artist and Yoga-Meditation writer, thinker, and practitioner. Doing experientially-based self-agency work grounded in research, reflection, and practice.