by Rick Traub
So, what about pain and suffering? Do they play a role in personal transformation? Are they necessary? If I really do have a choice, why do I sometimes choose pain? These are questions I’ve often asked myself, especially right after moving through a painful experience. I wonder, “Why did I do that?” Couldn’t the same lesson be learned in bliss rather than agony? The simple answer to these questions is there is no simple answer. Sometimes the road of personal transformation is lined with roses; other times, it’s a long, lonesome highway.
One thing I’ve discovered since I began working with the Avatar materials is that often it’s not so much the suffering itself that’s so horrible but my resistance to the suffering that becomes the entry ramp to my lonesome highway. I learn a great deal about this in being around my children, for it’s not often that they choose the lonesome highway. When they’re upset, they’ll usually go completely into the feeling of the moment, completely experience it (with a tantrum, for instance), let it go and move on to the next adventure. Wow! I think, If it works for them, maybe it will work for me!
I recently tore some ligaments in my shoulder and spent a couple of weeks totally resisting the experience and creating a previously inexperienced level of physical and emotional stress. My breakthrough came while doing an Avatar rundown from Section III of the materials called “It’s All Right to Feel Like This.” One expected result of the rundown is movement from resistance to nonjudgmental acceptance regarding the issue at hand.
After beginning the exercise, I quickly dropped my resistance to the physical pain, but surprise, surprise, taking myself to a place of “It’s All Right to Feel Like This” regarding my resistances to the actual experience was another matter. “NO! NO! NO! It is NOT all right that the healing process is so long, that so much of my attention is going to my shoulder instead of other areas of my life, that I’m wearing a sling, and that I have to let people do things for me. And it’s definitely not all right to even have these thoughts!”
With all of my attention tied up in that mess, it’s no wonder that there wasn’t any healing happening! Thanks to this ingenious little rundown, a lovingly relentless coach, and my own perseverance, I was able to move through the resistance and the emotional pain which I feel was blocking my progress. Although many people have reported spontaneous healings upon completing an Avatar rundown, it was not the case for me this time. However, the next day, I found that I no longer needed my sling. I also met a person with whom I did some significant healing work, and my arm felt connected to my body for the first time since my accident.
Ahhh! I breathed a sigh of relief and began to focus my attention on healing rather than on being injured. And I recalled once hearing the Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hanh remark, “I take great pleasure in having a toothache, because I know how wonderful I will feel when the pain stops.”
Also, in my pain, I began to experience an aliveness that I previously had thought was only possible when I was feeling happy, and as a result I’ve changed one of my goals from wanting to feel happy all the time to feeling alive in each moment. Adopting this point of view sure takes the pressure off! I find that my happiest moments are those when I allow myself to simply be with whatever is, with however I am, knowing that I have the tools to move through my experience when I am ready.
Recently, Harry Palmer shared some thoughts on pain and suffering: “Take suffering from illness as good medicine. Take misfortune and difficulties for a pleasant walk. Use obstacles for release, hindrances as companions. Embrace pain and suffering as your personal trainers.”
This is timely advice for me and provides a deeper understanding of the usefulness of the Avatar materials. If, like me, you want to embrace it all, to get behind life, perhaps Avatar is for you.Rick Traub, Blue Hill, Maine
return to issue 10.3 | return to Journal archives | top of page
All content copyright 2008, Star’s Edge, Inc. EPC is a service mark of Star's Edge, Inc. Avatar®, ReSurfacing®, Thoughtstorm®, Love Precious Humanity®, Enlightened Planetary Civilization® and Star’s Edge International® are registered trademarks of Star’s Edge, Inc. All rights reserved.