In a daring moment of insight Haruki Murakami is said to have remarked, “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” His quote goes to the heart of the issue at hand. There is a fundamental difference between pain and suffering. Pain is our physical and emotional reaction to an external event. Suffering is our internal interpretation and dramatization of the same. Words like “humiliation”, “anger”, “anxiety”, “fear”, etc., are associated with suffering. While pain is immediate in its impact, suffering stretches out.
The system of Yoga was created to avoid suffering. But this does not mean that Yogis will not feel pain. So to answer the question “Do Yogis feel pain?” The answer is: “Yes. Of course they do!” But those who are further in their journey into yoga, suffer less. There is much less regret and anger and there is this easy ability to let go and let bygones be bygones.
One way to look at life is as a series of events. Some events will bring pain and others will bring joy. The question is how do we deal with events that bring us pain? Either we take these and turn them into episodes of drama and transform our pain into suffering, or we let the episode of pain gently pass us by.
An episode of pain can and should transform us into becoming more humble and more grateful, but it should not scar us. It should not embitter us and make us fearful and anxious.
Easy words to write and yet so hard to put into practice! And this is where yoga comes in. Yoga helps systematically transform ourselves so that when an episode of pain shows up at our doorstep we are better equipped to deal with it. Continue reading
