The Nature of Pain - 2

Pleasure and pain are two most important neurophysiological responses in the brain which mark our likes and dislikes and wire the connection between the body, mind and environment. There is strong evidence for biological connections between the neurochemical pathways used for the perception of both pain and pleasure, which confirms with the yogic view of both experiences being part of the same continuum.

The Samkhya doctrine recognizes that process as the inner mechanics behind worldliness. Attachment arises from pleasure and pleasure is derived from attachment to the experience it produces. In turn pain gives rise to aversion and thus the circle of attachment and aversion strengthens the Vasanas (psychic conditioning) of an individual psyche.

When we undergo pleasurable experience we take it for granted, for its a natural predisposition in our mind and needs no questioning as for the reasoning. One of the resultant states of awakening is an increased awareness of the deep connectedness of all psychological states and physiological conditions. Even if still automatically preferring pleasure to pain the awakened mind is no longer bound by the attachment the experience of pleasure otherwise incurs.

That is because spontaneous realization rests on the knowledge that they (pain and pleasure) follow each other (like the dials of a clock) with the change in the alternating states with which Nature performs all actions. The Gunas (Sattva, Rajas, Tamas*) rotate and bring about changes in physical and psychological states of our system. Even a threshold of pain differs according to the predominance of a particular guna in an individual.

Whatever is the case, the one who set his/her mind on the path of yoga tries his/her best to overcome the cycle of attachment and aversion born of the experience of pleasure and pain. Both experiences produce the subconscious latencies in the shape of the above mentioned Vasanas. Attachment and aversion are rooted in misapprehension of reality which firmly binds the soul to the body by identification of the ''I'' (as a spectator) with the process of a spectacle.

To cut these circuit is to brake free from the chains with which the ''I'' is (seemingly) bound. Seemingly ? Well, the ''I'' is never affected by that which takes place on the level of cognitive (motor-sensory-mental) experiences, nor does it get affected by any fluctuations brought about by the superimposition of those experiences onto the ''I'' (as the perceiver). No more than the images projected onto the screen have an effect on the light which illumines the movie. So is with our experiences in the world as far as the motor-sensory-mental responses are concerned.

(end of part 2)

Notes:

* According to The Samhkya, one of the Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, The Gunas are primordial qualities which constitute Nature. On cosmological level Sattva is the energy of equilibrium; Rajas is the energy behind all motion; Tamas is primal factor behind inertia. In terms of psychological states of an individual, Sattva balances all processes and stands for light, clarity and peace. Rajas is responsible for excitement, passion, desire and consequently for all mental turmoil including pain and misery. Tamas as inertia rules stagnation and ignorance born of total identification with the physiology. Suffice to say that everyone is a mixture of all three energies with minute combination/proportion of the three Gunas which form the basis of an individual psyche.