On Pain: Part 3 - Healing the inner wound

Key topics: Split energy - Health - Ego - Trauma - Dark side (Shadow effect) - Enlightenment

This is the final part of my earlier post on Pain. I felt the need to throw more light on some key topics, some familiar and some vague or unfamiliar to the uninitated on the spiritual quest.

I am not erudite with respect to some of the topics in discussion here. But you may consider applying Bruce Lee's philosophy:

• Take what is useful
• Reject what is irrelevant
• Research your own experience
• Add something original of your own

As mentioned in Part 1, we tend to live split lives. The best time in one's life is inside one's mother's womb. In spirit and body, one remains as part of the mother - doing nothing, and life takes its own course. Then comes the time when one is ready for birth. This is the beginning of life's biggest trauma - birth. Birth is extremely painful. The baby shares the pain and is scared by the mother's cries and aches. It comes out unprepared for the shock - passing through a small passage, unaccustomed eyes dazzled by bright lights, chaotic sounds, unfamiliar sensations, contact with foreign bodies - cold and shocked. The placenta with the umbilical cord is removed. The same cord which was the lifeline for the baby in terms of food and oxygen is now severed and the baby is at loss of breath. The pain triggers the crying mechanism which causes the lungs to swell and the first breath - the first gasp  - is the closest experience to the unknown - death! This separation is relieved when the baby regains contact with the mother - the familiar feeling of non-separation.

With birth came the unconscious fear of death. Until the age of 3-4 there is no ego i.e. there is no separation except the feeling of a very miniscule feeling called I Am'ness. The ego comes immediately when one realizes the first feeling of a separate identity and individuality - it brings in tremendous power. With relation to the other, one knows that one is unique and the mind creates the ego as the tool for survival and intelligence hence there is a subconscious mind protecting oneself from every possible danger - the root of which goes back to death. When the ego is fully formed, the fear of death crystallizes in strength and all actions based on doership are based on the concept of 'what should be' and 'what should not be'. Our thoughts form our personalities. Of our personality, acceptable thoughts-feelings-actions are encouraged by us while we do / we are conditioned to - reject unacceptable thoughts-feelings - actions. This rejected part of us is what is popularly known as the Dark Side / Inner child / Shadow-self.

Until we die, we keep avoiding consciously/subconsciously/ unconsciously the dark side of ourselves. This split side of us resides within us as blocked energy and we spend our lives using energy to suppress blocked energy. The more such blocks we build in our lives, the more energy remains waiting to be released. In spirituality jargon this is called 'Karma'. Karmic relationships happen to attend to unresolved blocked issues and when there is a complete healing and full and final understanding of non-duality and the experience of wholeness - such a person is siad to be enlightened. Even the final split "I" and "the other" ceases to exist and there is no longer a doer - rather deeds happen and only awareness remains. The enlightened person sees that there is only one door. From one end it reads as birth and from the other side it reads as death. They are 2 sides of the same coin.

The goal of evolution is consciousness. That of conciousness is knowledge. That of all knowledge is self knowledge. That of self-knowledge is no-knowledge. That of no-knowledge is unnconsciousness. Thus the goal of everything is to know the source as nothing. From nothingness/ emptiness emanates everything. Sound to silence, action to stillness share the same relationship as that of waves that emerge and fall back into water. This emptiness is actually the source that contains everything. Like a seed that has the blueprint of the entire tree. Hence the goal of all efforts is to reach the stage of wholeness. And the way according to nature is simply the way of least effort.

Least effort means maximum energy / undivided energy. Hence the emphasis on vegetarian foods to ensure maximum absorption of energy with relatively lower energy requirements for digestion. Meat and greasy foods that take time to digest clearly indicates that your body's existing energy store is getting depleted just to break down foods that will not give you sufficient energy. There is an imbalance in input and output of energy thus resulting in illness. Yogic exercises too revolve around the concept of balance of energy. Ayurvedic remedies also work around the concept of balancing the 5 elements of our bodies.

With the available energy, you have the maximum opportunity for body-mind-spirit growth & development. In essence, there is maximum energy available to simply be conscious in non-duality. This awareness frees one from the bondage of doership. This is the ultimate liberation - the liberation from self - the freedom from the Karmic trap - the 'concept' of Enlightenment.