Let the Tao Heal Your Pain

Every situation properly perceived becomes an opportunity to heal the Son of God.
(A Course in Miracles)

We all have a pain body. Who knows where exactly it came from and why it does to have to come to the surface when it does. Yet we all feel that something is slumbering inside of us that hurts. We may even have a pretty good feel for what trigger could bring it to the surface, and when it pops up, we witness an explosion helplessly. Yet after the thunderstorm, after we have cleaned up the broken China on the floor, everything miraculously returns back to normal.

A pain body can be healed.  A spiritual path is all about bringing what lies beneath to the surface. The Tao is working hard to get your sanity back. Your pain body may have played its part to launch you on your journey, may even have defined the person you have become, yet the Way will build on that and make you whole. As you connect with the Way you can suddenly see how life encourages you to drop the baggage of the past by the wayside. The Tao will also teach you how to stay always connected to the Way, and as you do, you will not accumulate new injuries in the process. So it is just a question of time before your pain body has shrunk into nothingness.

 Most of the psychological cuts that slumber hidden inside were caused by our ego. We seek comfort, love, recognition and the glory of the world.  Our ego wants us to be special.  We seek out the stuff and the people to prove to us that our island is bigger and more elevated than everyone else's; so we spend a career and lifetime to cement these differences. And as we do we break a lot of China without even realizing it. Of course, all this happens subconsciously. We rarely admit our quest to ourselves and consequently don't like the few who do very much. The Tao knows what we truly need. She knows that we are all one and that the cry for being special will always hurt us. But just learning this concept in a spiritual community doesn't help, we have to get this struggle out in the open. Only then are we just one step away from dropping it for good.

Little psychological cuts incurred in childhood may define who we become as a person. Our father on a bad day may have called us ugly and this curse burnt itself into our soul. We choose a career to compete with the best and the brightest to compensate for the fact that you can never be stunning like our friends. Our husband tells us how beautiful we are, yet,  he clearly must be lying. One little event, perhaps as innocent as finding a gray hair in the mirror, or not fitting into a tight jeans and this pain body gets activated again. Out comes the fury at work and a few poor guys  get caught in the cross-fire.

You may laugh at this story line but you know what, it is unfortunately very real. We all behave like little children as we know deep down inside that we don't experience the love that we deserve. Yet, we very much have the ability to step out of this childish movie plot and the Tao encourages us to do exactly that. Sometimes it is about catching ourselves when we set out again to conquer the world. Often  it is about catching all the negative mental loops that are running non-stop:  “you are ugly”, “you are stupid”, “you are a loser”, “no one loves you". Awareness of what is going on is step one In the healing process. Step two is to realize that life encourages you moment by moment to connect with a Force that is beyond us, yet part of us. It is as if a red threat appears on the floor with the message, "look here and lose your ego in the process". The Tao heals your pain body if you only let Her.

By Christian and Su Zhen