One of the authors who influenced me very greatly was Eckhart Tolle, writer of the sensational hit, The Power Of Now. In this book, Tolle dishes out insight and wisdom in such heaping quantities, it'll shatter your reality. One thing in particular which really makes a lot of sense is his notion of The Pain Body. This is a way of modelling a certain phenomenon I've been aware of since my undergrad days. Once, when I was walking with a friend, I suddenly pointed out to him how, sometimes, when we're feeling miserable, we don't want to feel better. It's almost silly, when you really think about it. Have you ever been down in the dumps, and something funny happens, but you don't want to laugh? That's crazy, it's like a deliberate choice of unhappiness when happiness is right there within grasp! My friend laughed and agreed. We'd both had this kind of experience, but neither of us could explain why our psychologies acted in this irrational manner! Enter Tolle.
What is the Painbody? It's an entity inside every one of us, feeding off our every negative emotion. When I'm happy, my PB starves and withers. Obviously he's going to do everything in his power to prevent that! The more you starve it with joy, the more weak and desperate the entity becomes. If you're not wary to its tactics, you'll end up lashing out at something minor. I've heard of a guy going weeks "walking on sunshine", only to lash out at an ATM machine, furiously punching the screen in overreaction to some minor glitch. This is the desperate "last throes" of our friend the pain body. It's imperative to know how to combat this frantic, hungry creature, especially when it's cornered.
So how do you fight the painbody? Eckhart prescribes the most powerful tactic to pin the monster down. More powerful than any antibiotic or antivirus, Tolle prescribes attention. Simply allow yourself to be aware of whatever hysterics the gremlin is up to, and they'll break down. Because they're irrational and cannot withstand scrutiny. Being consciously aware of the pain body is like blasting it with a big spotlight. Like anything shadowy, it'll shrivel up.
Be careful, attention in the Tollian sense doesn't mean scrunching up your face in a big effort of concentration. It doesn't mean rubbing your temples or listening to your inner chi. Attention is effortless and natural, the state of mind of a newborn child gazing curiously at her own hand as if it's the most novel thing in the universe. It's looking at something without analyzing it or judging it or even just linguistically parsing it. The reason this is so effective at dismantling the patterns of pain is that those patterns are physically etched in the brain, the results of a lifetime of mental programming. When viewed through the eyes of a baby, when viewed with attention, the lifetime of programming is denied, and suddenly the sheer irrationality of anguish becomes apparent.
Let's look at an example. Say I'm a Very Serious Businessman and I just got splashed by a car. A lifetime of programming signals that it's time for me to enter my irritable mode, and all the patterns of misery are set busily in motion. Now someone on the sidewalk beams a smile at me. Rather than smile back, I glare and cross my arms. I've chosen unhappiness when I could just as easily have chosen to be happy. This is absurd, but a lifetime of programming has blinded me to that fact. If a baby were in the same situation, the absurdity of opting into misery would be readily apparent. Same thing goes for anyone who is present in the moment, experiencing life through attention.
In closing, I must address some of the more physical questions about the Pain Body. Is it real? Could a surgeon cut you open and find it inside you? Obviously not! As an entity, Tolle's creation is only a symbol for the autopilot scripts to which so many people submit control of their lives. In Glowing Face Man language, it's a convenient model of reality, capable of producing a valuable dividend: happiness. Whether the model is objectively true or false has no bearing on whether it's useful.
Remember this article the next time you're coming down from cloud nine and feeling the inexplicable temptation to smash an ATM screen with your fist.
FURTHER READING
Conscious and Subconscious Mind
Examples of Positive Affirmations
Gloom and Doom
Book Review: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (one of my VERY early articles)
What is the Painbody? It's an entity inside every one of us, feeding off our every negative emotion. When I'm happy, my PB starves and withers. Obviously he's going to do everything in his power to prevent that! The more you starve it with joy, the more weak and desperate the entity becomes. If you're not wary to its tactics, you'll end up lashing out at something minor. I've heard of a guy going weeks "walking on sunshine", only to lash out at an ATM machine, furiously punching the screen in overreaction to some minor glitch. This is the desperate "last throes" of our friend the pain body. It's imperative to know how to combat this frantic, hungry creature, especially when it's cornered.
So how do you fight the painbody? Eckhart prescribes the most powerful tactic to pin the monster down. More powerful than any antibiotic or antivirus, Tolle prescribes attention. Simply allow yourself to be aware of whatever hysterics the gremlin is up to, and they'll break down. Because they're irrational and cannot withstand scrutiny. Being consciously aware of the pain body is like blasting it with a big spotlight. Like anything shadowy, it'll shrivel up.
Be careful, attention in the Tollian sense doesn't mean scrunching up your face in a big effort of concentration. It doesn't mean rubbing your temples or listening to your inner chi. Attention is effortless and natural, the state of mind of a newborn child gazing curiously at her own hand as if it's the most novel thing in the universe. It's looking at something without analyzing it or judging it or even just linguistically parsing it. The reason this is so effective at dismantling the patterns of pain is that those patterns are physically etched in the brain, the results of a lifetime of mental programming. When viewed through the eyes of a baby, when viewed with attention, the lifetime of programming is denied, and suddenly the sheer irrationality of anguish becomes apparent.
Let's look at an example. Say I'm a Very Serious Businessman and I just got splashed by a car. A lifetime of programming signals that it's time for me to enter my irritable mode, and all the patterns of misery are set busily in motion. Now someone on the sidewalk beams a smile at me. Rather than smile back, I glare and cross my arms. I've chosen unhappiness when I could just as easily have chosen to be happy. This is absurd, but a lifetime of programming has blinded me to that fact. If a baby were in the same situation, the absurdity of opting into misery would be readily apparent. Same thing goes for anyone who is present in the moment, experiencing life through attention.
In closing, I must address some of the more physical questions about the Pain Body. Is it real? Could a surgeon cut you open and find it inside you? Obviously not! As an entity, Tolle's creation is only a symbol for the autopilot scripts to which so many people submit control of their lives. In Glowing Face Man language, it's a convenient model of reality, capable of producing a valuable dividend: happiness. Whether the model is objectively true or false has no bearing on whether it's useful.
Remember this article the next time you're coming down from cloud nine and feeling the inexplicable temptation to smash an ATM screen with your fist.
FURTHER READING
Conscious and Subconscious Mind
Examples of Positive Affirmations
Gloom and Doom
Book Review: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (one of my VERY early articles)
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