RamDev – Healing at the Edge – Ep. 36 – Pain is Mandatory, Suffering is Optional

RamDev - Healing at the Edge - Ep. 36 - Pain is Mandatory, Suffering is Optional

RamDev shares a dharma talk around accepting the inevitability of pain and seeing that the suffering that comes with our pain is completely optional.

Accepting Pain

How much time have you spent trying to avoid the suffering that comes from pain? Dale looks at the possibility of finding relief by conceding our losing battle against emotional and physical pain.

“Freedom doesn’t mean freedom from pain – it means freedom from suffering. The pain will still be there.” – RamDev RamDev

Tête-à-Tête with What Hurts Most (9:35)

Dale looks at the role of spiritual practice in how we relate to pain. Do we use our practice as another method of avoiding pain or as a vehicle that allows us to be with pain when it arrives?

“Your pain will find you. Instead of trying to say, ‘Excuse me a second, I am going to do some practices to make you go away.’ Instead, say, ‘Oh here you are! What is this about? Can I really open to what this feels like?” – RamDev RamDev 

Making The Choice (16:20)

How can we make the choice between whether our pain is going to be a path to suffering or a path to liberation? Dale explores the ever-present option available to respond to our afflictions in a way that is free of suffering.

“There is going to be pain in our lives. I think for most of us, there is a very subtle and unconscious process of trying to get away from pain. If one just relaxes and settles down and feels what is going on there, then there won’t be suffering. The pain may stay or it may go. We don’t really know what is going to happen, but we are not in battle with our lives. We are not trying to get away from who we are or who whats going on in our lives.” – RamDev RamDev

Stephen Levine explores our relationship to mental and physical pain on Ep. 39 of the Be Here Now Network Guest Podcast

 

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