Kundalini Splendor

I'll start with your question about the difference between pain and suffering. I wouldn't be surprised that we see it from differing perspectives so I'll be curious to read your comments in a future email.

From my present perspective which comes from my Jewel Tree Meditation, pain is part of the dualistic nature of this three-dimensional planet. Everything is energy and its nature is to flow towards value-fulfillment and well-being, but not from an anthropomorphic entity. Energy moves, space particles combine to manifest forms, and those forms live and grow to fulfill a potential. A dandelion seed finds a crack in a sidewalk, takes root, and becomes, in a sense, the best dandelion it can be.

Recently I read a woman's account of her near-death experience and she returned with a message that there is no purpose other than for her "to be the best me" she could be. When energy flows unimpeded there is what we call pleasure, and when the energy is diverted or blocked we call it pain. Pain, as you wrote, is like an awakening mechanism or a corrective device, maybe something like an automatic course correcter on a plane. I believe we exist simply to see what we can do as a holographic energy form with a self-reflective nature.

Suffering, I believe, is the experience of not understanding this nature of reality. In Buddhism there are three types of suffering: the suffering of suffering; the suffering of impermanence; and the suffering of dependent origination.

The suffering of suffering is an added layer of misery on top of pain. A woman hurts her knee, experiences pain, changes her actions, allows energy to flow in a positive direction again, and continues her life. Suffering, in this case I believe, would be to sit and moan and complain and wonder "why me".

The suffering of impermanence is the inability to understand that everything is a temporary manifestation, an illusion, that will disappear. Life is more like a mirage, a dream from which we awaken. But, that's not to say that this conventional reality does not exist. We are here and like Shylock if you prick someone he or she will bleed. But it's not the be-all and end-all of existence. Again, everything is part of this duality: if we have hot we have cold; if we have up we have down; if we have birth we have death; and if we have pleasure we have pain.

And, finally, there is the suffering of dependent origination which, in my explanation, is what keeps the wheels of karma turning. There are twelve links of dependent origination: ignorance, karmic formations, consciousness, name and form, senses, sense sensations, feeling, clinging, grasping, becoming, and aging and death. They are what bind us to the six desire realms: hell, hungry ghost, animal, human, jealous gods and gods. As long as we cling to a separate self, an isolated independent "I", we turn on this wheel as the mind stream composed of thoughts and emotions "travels" from life to life.

The solution, for me anyway, is to understand Dzogchen which is the same as Krishnamurti's "what is", Ramana Maharshi's "Self", or Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's "I AM". It's all energy that moves, forms, and returns. We are that energy and we are a part of its evolution.

This is what I practice every morning as one section of the Jewel Tree Meditation. It takes me between a half hour and an hour to go through the stages from Hinayana Buddhism to Dzogchen.

Of course, I confess, this is all held in my head...an abstract approach to the world. It's much easier to philosophize about pain when there is no pain. But I'm hoping that by contemplating on these principles I will be able to use them when the time comes.

So...that's my answer and I'd like to know how you view pain and suffering.

(Charles offers a blog at charlessides.wordpress.com)