Buddha's
Teaching on Dealing with Pain
(Samyutta Nikaya 36/6)
The Blessed One said, " When touched with a feeling of pain,
the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person sorrows, grieves, & laments, beats
his breast, becomes distraught. So he feels two pains, physical & mental.
Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, were to
shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pains of two arrows. In
the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill
person sorrows, grieves, & laments, beats his breast, becomes distraught.
So he feels two pains, physical & mental”.
"As he is touched by that painful feeling, he is resistant.
Any latent tendency to resistance toward that painful feeling comes into play.
Touched by that painful feeling, he delights in sensual pleasure. Why is that?
Because the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person does not discern any escape
from painful feeling aside from sensual pleasure. As he is delighting in
sensual pleasure, any latent tendency to passion toward that feeling of
pleasure comes into play. He does not discern, as it actually is present, the
origination, passing away, allure, drawback, or escape from that feeling, then
any latent tendency to ignorance toward a feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain
comes into play”.
"Sensing a feeling of pleasure, he senses it as though joined
with it. Sensing a feeling of pain, he senses it as though joined with it.
Sensing a feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain, he senses it as though joined
with it. This is called an uninstructed run-of-the-mill person joined with
birth, aging, & death; with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, &
despairs. He is joined, I tell you, with suffering & stress”.
"Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when
touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not
beat his breast or become distraught. So he feels one pain: physical, but not
mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with another one, so that he would
feel the pain of only one arrow. In the same way, when touched with a feeling
of pain, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not sorrow,
grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. He feels one
pain: physical, but not mental”.
"As he is touched by that painful feeling, he is not
resistant. No latent tendency to resistance toward that painful feeling, he
does not delight in sensual pleasure. Why is that? Because the well-instructed
disciple of the noble ones discerns an escape from painful feeling aside from
sensual pleasure. As he is not delighting in sensual pleasure, no latent
tendency to passion toward that feeling of pleasure comes into play. He
discerns, as it actually is present, the origination, passing away, allure,
drawback, and escape from that feeling. As he discerns the origination, passing
away, allure, drawback, and escape from that feeling, no latent tendency to
ignorance toward a feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain comes into play”.
"Sensing a feeling of pleasure, he senses it disjoined from
it. Sensing a feeling of pain, he senses it disjoined from it. Sensing a
feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain, he senses it disjoined from it. This is
called a well-instructed disciple of the noble ones disjoined from birth,
aging, & death; from sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, &
despairs. He is disjoined, I tell you, from suffering & stress”.
"This is the difference, this the distinction, this the
distinguishing factor between the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones
and the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person."