The Pain Body Does Have an End ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy

The pain body is collective suffering that only appears to be alive in you. It is an accumulation of emotional pain or what we refer to as unconsciousness. Through misidentifying with thinking and being unconscious of how the pain body is functioning and thriving through identifying with your thoughts, you have the opportunity to transmute the unconsciousness into consciousness.

The perfect tool is self-observation. Become conscious of the pain body's structure and how it requires both thought and time to operate. Most of all, it requires that you identify with thinking. Since you are observing thought, you no longer tend to identify with the thoughts and therefore the pain body can no longer use you.

When you are able to be in self-observation all day, you are nearing the end of the pain. This essentially means that you become free of the emotional pain caused by psychological thinking. This does not mean that you have to sit doing nothing all day long in self-observation or meditation. It merely means that you are not only present with everything that is happening during the day, but you are also conscious of what is happening within you.

Even after you have become conscious of the structure, the pain body will continue to arise within you for awhile. It is almost like a temptation that begs you to dance with it. It may arise as a sense of unease or mild sense of dread. However, you are now conscious of when it starts activating. Take a few conscious breaths if you find yourself slipping into unconsciousness. Follow your breathing for a moment. You will notice that you shift out of time into presence.

I am not suggesting that you try to stop it or escape from it. That is resistance and it will actually empower the pain body all the more. The pain body loves conflict and grows stronger through resistance. So, simply follow your breathing and allow it to be as it is while observing it.

That which is unconscious will dissolve into the pure consciousness that it genuinely is. Be willing to feel the pain body, even welcome it, but do not identify with it. This requires a consistent, conscious watcher to always be present.

The emotional pain may be uncomfortable, but it does have an end. Just as the darkness of night effortlessly disappears when the sun rises in the morning, the darkness of unconsciousness cannot prevail in the light of consciousness. Instead of energizing the pain body, you will find that your consciousness is growing brighter and stronger.

Only This Love ~ Katie

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Falling Apart by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy - Part 2 of 4 - Awakening - Katie Davis Blog - Awake by Katie

Part Two of a Series of 4 (For questioner, see first entry on December 28)



Katie Davis:

Sometimes in moments of loss, we turn away from the world, away from everyone and everything, away from people, possessions, and general life circumstances. This turning to be alone is such a gift. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try to change life circumstances, in the end, we still do not feel happy. In grief and loss, no matter how long we attempt to heal the pain, it seems to remain. The blessing is that attention is turned inward.

Self-observation begins and the basic dysfunctions of conditioned thought are exposed and made conscious. The "normal" functioning of conditioned thought is relatively the same for everyone, with of course individual circumstantial differences. 


Through the observation of thought, attachment and identification with them subsides. When we realize that we are not our thoughts, we begin noticing that we are really the pure attention that is observing the thoughts. This is our first step toward liberation, toward the Truth of being that we are right now. Once this primary dysfunction is made conscious, the thoughts may be released; the conditioning is freed.

We begin discerning what is true and what is false. You can observe the subconscious storylines that are driving the conditioning. You have the choice to stop following them. Maybe there are certain thoughts that just do not need to be thought any longer. In this release, there is more space. You notice that you are really the spaciousness within which the conditioned thought stream flows. There is an opening and a relaxation of the mind. With more tranquility, the thought stream starts slowing. In the slowing, there is less emotional reactivity, since we are no longer identified with the thought.

Questioner:



I tried years of therapy and my feelings did improve somewhat.



Katie Davis:

Yes, of course, everything has its place within time. I am sure a greater self-understanding emerged from those meetings and perhaps a new type of programming that supported a more balanced life. Certainly, a compassionate listener helps you to hear your thoughts and feelings.

Because of past conditioning, certain thoughts are linked to certain emotions and by releasing this programming, the linkage is broken or improves somewhat. Your relative happiness improves accordingly. We feel relatively happier. Better programming facilitates emotional balance, however it still is programming and it is still ego's programming. It is like changing the television channel to better programming, but it still is only a program on television. There is nothing real about it. Happiness still comes and goes, sometimes happy and sometimes very sad.

Therapy definitely has it’s place and provides a wonderful support for people in difficult times, allows us to watch our thoughts and how they interact with our emotions. It is just that if you are searching for that which is permanent, that is, a joy that can never leave you, you can not find it within the relative, within the impermanent. Impermanence cannot provide permanence.

Can you see that you are continuing to believe that you are somehow separate and this uninvestigated assumption of individuality as identity has never been directly examined yet. You said that you have been on this path for many years. Perhaps you have studied your thoughts, your feelings, and your form long enough. Improving limited objects does not make them unlimited. The invitation before you right now is to see who the star of this movie really is. In other words, whose thoughts, whose emotions, whose form. Who are you really?

(Part Three of Falling Apart, a Dialogue with a questioner and Katie Davis will continue tomorrow)

Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org