October 20, 2008
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Dysthymia and the Pain Body
Have you heard about Eckhart Tolle’s concept of the “pain body”…. a portion of our Self, the Universal Consciousness, which somehow gets cut off from the Whole….Eckhart explains that each of us has a pain body. It is part of our egoic experience. It exists to play out its separateness, and the anger, and grief that separation from the Divine embody, in myriads of scenarios in our lives. We get into an irrelevant conflict…we feel depressed…we get all worked into a lather over something and then wonder why….that’s the pain body.
As many of us believe, as sensate extensions of the Conscious Energy Field we exist here to experience Life. But the pain body takes possession of our “mind/body complex” and uses it to play out its agenda. It cleverly induces us into situations where we will experience pain….the pain of disappointment, of hatred, of frustration….and then it feeds upon that pain. The pain body is the embodied belief that we are separate from the Universal. Therefore, by making us believe that we are separate, and making us experience the pain of that separation, the pain body perpetuates itself.
If I think about it, it seems that all of my negative emotions can be traced to a belief that I am not Whole….that I need something….that this limited “mind/body complex” is all I really am….all egoic beliefs….all beliefs the pain body wants us to hold. Because as Eckhart Tolle tells us, the instant I exist here and now….in the moment…. and cease to believe that I am this egoic individual that I constantly identify with…. I am not in pain….I am experiencing life. Then the pain body comes to an end. It cannot exist if we are in the moment….Whole. The moment we cease to identify with it, it loses its hold. But the pain body doesn’t want that so it fights.
I thought about this as it relates to depression. Such a sad vibration….a vibration of loss, and disappointment. That is the pain body for sure. Eckhart says that some have a relatively light pain body and experience it infrequently, while a few have such a strong pain body that they experience it all the time, and are never free of it. Could this be the case with dysthymia….chronic depression form birth? If so….this is the most hopeful thing I have heard. Stop identifying with it and it loses its hold. In fact once released, the pain body returns to us as the Life Force it once was before it was cut off from Us! We are actually energized by it!
Comments (9)
This is a great description of a condition we all have to come to terms with.
To dis-identify with the mind is the key, to the end of suffering. It is sad that so few understand this.
I will come back to read your next post.
Dos
great post ! I haven’t ever heard pain body yet…very interesting..
I find Tolle too complicated I tried reading his latest book and it is not for me at this time I guess. Judi
my angels told me physical pain is sometimes all that tethers high fliers vouyers & time travelers to the earth plane it forces one however temporary to remain in the moment you have a familiar style we here in Xland could use wisdom such as you have here
thanks for dropping by blessings beck
@jassmine - I know what you mean…funny how something simple takes no complexity when you try to talk about it. I took Oprah’s online class with him. It was easier that way. From your posts I think you know what he’s trying to say…be conscious in the moment.
@mag_1 - Being present in day to day life is one thing, from my tiny experience being present in pain is definitely the home stretch.
A few years ago Tolle would have been a mind trip for me now I have abandoned some of the intellectual for simplicity. Be as a little child and all that. Judi
Eckhart Tolle is a curious study.
For me, I have come to find him incomplete, although I will confess I found his book, “The Power of Now,” more than beneficial at the moments it was needed. There are nuances he does not begin to uncover. But this is only my response. Many find him more than enough.
Blessings~
Ah yes, I totally agree…there’s much more he doesn’t touch on in the books I find…although I cannot say much about Eckhart….It seems he has a specific place and work…but my experience with what he conveyed has been very real…the pain body…that was useful to me.