Sometimes, ironically, one of our best spiritual teachers is Brother Pain. As long as we're happy and life is 'normal' we usually have little motivation to 'study' the way that leads to bigger life. This is just the way it is--and there's no need to seek pain--it comes when it does. But when IT does come, it's wise and helpful to recognize pain's relatedness to LIFE.
The following is another of Jack Kornfield's rich story/quote passages. It's from
The Wise Heart.
I particularly value the wisdom in JK's phrase 'more workable'--and the Anne Morrow Lindbergh passage he quotes dramatically brings 'workable' to life.
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Last year, Malik, a man with a progressive form of rheumatoid arthritis, came to a practice at a retreat. He had done all he could medically for himself, but he was still frustrated and angry. We worked together as he learned to soften the anger and aversion around the pain, to breathe and hold his body, even the contractions, with kind attention. He used the traditional image of a parent holding and protecting a crying child. Equally important, Malik had to learn to relax his judgments, his frustration and anger and self-pity. He learned compassion practice for himself and extended it to all those whose bodies are in pain.
Gradually, Malik's physical pain and frustration became more workable. He discovered how to honor his crippled body with a tender attention. He recognized the lesson Anne Morrow Lindbergh discovered during the birth of her child. "Go
with the the pain. Let it take you...open your palms and your body to the pain. It comes in waves like a tide, and you must be open as a vessel lying on the beach, letting it fill you up and then, retreating, leaving you empty and clear.... With a deep breath--it has to be as deep as the pain--one reaches a kind of inner freedom from pain, as though the pain were not yours but your body's. The spirit lays the body on the altar."
