Ask A Monk: Dealing With Pain and Using Suffering as a Vehicle for Enlightenment

http://ask.sirimangalo.org/question/105/painful-urge-to-move

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[uilium]

I have panic attacks that I know were caused by an experience I had. I get this fear out of the blue that "I will fall out of my body or reality will disintegrate before my eyes(though I always describe these attacks as "unbearable" I always get through them). The panic attacks make me feel these "chaotic deep feelings" that I always wanted to figure out through meditation. My Doctor says I will never be cured though and should keep taking tranquilizers. Do you disagree? Thanks for all the eye

[yuttadhammo]

@uilium you're welcome and yes, I disagree with your doctor.  "Never" is an absurdity. Be patient and persistent and you can move mountains.

[prashantha33]

great.



[teevorian]

I am so sorry that I feel always very angry about the buddhist teachings. To me it seems that Buddhism is based on telling people that every fun they have - whether healthy or not - procreation, music, competition, candy, drugs, party, idle chatter, games, movies, doing good deeds, etc will cause eventually suffering. Or rebirth - which of cause is bad. I wonder what "true happiness" actually consists of. I think one should realize ones own nature and be happy through love to all beings/thinks.

[teevorian]

This is one of the view great videos.

Other unrelated question: Please comment about the meditation on how disgusting the body is. I am so shocked that the Buddha taught to cultivate aversion against the own body, in order to kill of sexual desires when they arise by imagining pictures of rotten corpses(google "the 32 impure parts of the body". Is this the actual goal of the theravada path? To kill of all desires, and to suffer to finally experience "true happiness"?

[teevorian]

Hi Simple questions:

1. Are you happy? Does your way work out (already)?

2. Why do you think that desire is the cause of suffering?

3. Why should sensual pleasure cause suffering, only because it is impermanent?

4. Why should anything necessaryly cause suffering because of impermanence?

[jonoce633]

I have a fear of becoming self-conscious while concentrating on something, so I'm not able to concentrate effectively because I become self aware when the actual concentration does begin. When that happens my unconscious anger pulls me, drags me or pressures me just because I notice that I'm becoming aware. How can I manage this problem?

[MultiDoomsday666]

i have been thinking this way for a long time now..thanks guys

[Wonderwall36]

Pure wisdom, thanks. Some of your videos have inspired me, and this is yet another one. More people should be aware of the Buddha's teaching, it should be diffused and spread out to the world. There is so much suffering everywhere, a lot of it hidden.

[StudentofthePath]

Ven Yutta like you said I had many breakthroughs in my meditation practice during a 5 day meditation retreat where we did upwards of 6 hours of meditation a day in hour or hour and a half increments.

After two days I had such aversion to meditation because of the pain and uncomfortable feelings to the point where it became a very emotional experience and towards the end I actually ended up having a breakthrough and started to let go more.

This set me on the right path in my practice. great vid

[BytomGirl]

PS. I believe we don;t have to suffer if we do everything to be healthy, that we create our own health. Of course we will suffer if we eat junk, are angry with the entire world, sit on the couch all day...our body will respond with inflamation, desease, pain and as a result, suffering. We can control our destiny rather than say that desease id something innevitable and just reduce symptoms through meditation, I use meditation as a part as a total program of wellbeing.

[BytomGirl]

You say pain is not bad but is not pain a symptom of something wrong with the body? Something that needs to be taken care of? It's often a symptom of inflamation in the body so maybe it's a sign we should change the way we eat, reduce stress, etc. If we just try to supress pain in our brain withoutt worrying about it's source, don;t we ignore the cause of it? Should not we reduce pain through meditation along with proper eating, exercise and occasionally getting tested and taking supplements?