10: When the Pain Body Awakens
On this episode of Living with Tolle we talk about the Pain Body, a powerful spiritual insight Eckhart Tolle first introduced in The Power of Now. We explore how the pain body manifests in life and strategies for dealing with the short term and long term effects.
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Key Highlights From Our Conversation
Leo opens the conversation by talking about his recent feelings of depression. In short, daily life kicks in and overwhelms him. He describes a sense of “falling off the wagon,” specifically around his inability to feel present, to practice acceptance, and to connect with others in daily life, especially around his work life. 
Lack of time, work obligations, lack of joy all led him to a feeling of disillusionment with the spiritual teachings he’s been exploring. Even though intellectually the teachings make sense and have led him to a sense of awakening and greater presence, this “down” episode fundamentally challenges all he’s been working towards. He describes it as a feeling of having to go back and starting from the beginning.
Greg points to the pain body as a way to explain Leo’s situation.
Thus begins a great conversation about the role of the pain body on both a personal and a collective level and on the importance of acceptance as a powerful spiritual practice for dealing with the pain body.
What is the Pain Body?
The pain body has been described by Eckhart Tolle as past emotional pain alive in your life today.
The pain body is a living entity or energy field that is attached to the authentic expression of your life. As such, it can be described as a parasitic energy field engorging itself on your life energy. Think of a tapeworm: it releases a chemical in the body that makes you crave food that feeds and engorges the parasite, but is actually bad for you.
But the pain body is not just a personal problem. The pain body is a collective phenomenon. The pain body is transferred to the individual through social and cultural conditioning. You experience the collective pain body on a personal level and through the many ways it can manifest in your life. In fact, the collective pain body survives through individuals remaining unconscious and contributing “pain” from personal experiences.
Eckhart has stated that your greatest responsibility is to personally cleanse yourself of the pain body, so you no longer add to the collective pain body.
Why is acceptance such a powerful spiritual practice in dealing with the pain body?
The pain body has two states: active and dormant. When it is active, it is a sign that you are not conscious enough to keep from reacting to life from the pain. And even though it may be uncomfortable and counterintuitive, when the pain body is active the only constructive response is to be in acceptance of what is happening in this moment.
(16:00)
Many times people complain about the pain body and don’t want it to come up. This is the ego complaining about the pain body, but the energy of the complaint is what feeds the pain body itself! So you have to go back to step one, which is acceptance. The best response is to be in acceptance when the pain body is active, and when it is dormant you can return to cultivating presence through your spiritual practices. Awareness of the pain body is important. through cultivating awareness and presence, when the pain body lashes out, you can recognize it more easily. You can see it. Now you can be aware that this is not who you are, but it is the pain body becoming active. The greatest agent for change is awareness, as Eckhart says.
Cultivating Presence and Awareness
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“This too shall pass.” When you are cultivating presence and a sense of awareness,
you will be able to have a quicker recovery from an active pain body. You will be able to know this active state of the pain body shall pass.
When it passes, you go back to generating presence, to practices that help you cultivate presence so the next time the pain body becomes active you can have a greater degree of awareness around the experience, without letting it consume you. Presence power that you cultivate actually breaks up the strength of the pain body itself.
Have a routine set of practices that refresh your spirit and your sense of presence. Make time in your life to be in retreats, in spiritual communities, in practices that help cultivate presence.
Beginner’s Mind & Being Humble
Leo discusses how this experience with the pain body left him feeling humble, recalling the Zen concept of beginner’s mind. This is a process of growth. The awareness increases, so when the pain body becomes active, you can see it more clearly. Yet going back to the beginning and cultivating the basics is key in the process of spiritual growth.
How can I humble myself to acknowledge that the pain body is a strong presence on this planet, and so that I can be aware of it when it becomes active again, through acceptance rather than resistance.
We end our 10th episode with the concept of beginner’s mind. Acknowledging that this is a process of growth and awakening we are experiencing.
Questions for further thought and comments:
- If you feel “drained” of life, how is the pain body showing up in your life experience and draining your life energy?
- How is the past still alive in your experience today, even though you have committed to forgiving or forgetting it?
- How are you “battling” with your pain body? What practices are people involved in to help cultivate the sense of presence
And in the spirit of beginner’s mind, we also ask for your feedback on the podcast and on the web site.
Please send us your comments and your suggestions for future topics. Thanks everyone for listening!
Comment by Greg on 14 January 2009:
You’re welcome Kathy and thanks for tuning into the teleseminar. Yes, getting back up with a bit more awareness… over and over… is the path. This is part of growing in presence power! All the best and thanks for tuning in. Keep warm! Greg
Comment by Kathy Dannel Vitcak on 26 January 2009:
Thank you so much for this fabulous website and the energy you put into your podcasts. I listened to the teleseminar and very much enjoyed it.
The Pain Body Podcast was wonderful, I have listened to it a couple of times and felt reassured. Even though I know (in my mind) that the vast majority of us will spend ALL of our lives addressing, readdressing and then addressing AGAIN our Pain Bodies, it is reassuring to know that others have doubts, fall off the wagon and get back up…over and over!
THANK YOU!
KathyDV
Comment by Christine on 11 March 2009:
Hello Leo,
I just returned from my walk. I’m a new subscriber and was catching up on old pocasts. I listened to #10 where you were expressing your frustration about “falling off the wagon” and having to start over with your beginner mind. I loved Greg’s response in regard to the pain body, but I just have a comment. You said in the podcast that you were having THOUGHTS racing through your mind, feeling frustrated and doubting the validity of Eckhart’s teachings. The “thoughts” are what usually trip my switch. This is your sneaky little ego trying to be important, trying to keep you wrapped up in your mind and maintain it’s existence. You also many times use the word TRY and STRUGGLE. Eckhart says many times not to TRY to get rid of the ego or the pain body; it won’t work. These are energy forms that are part of the human condition. But just becoming AWARE of them saps their power. Just as in the light there can be no darkness. Where there is awareness the ego has no power. And yes, practice is the key. I have been living with Eckhart’s teachings for a little over a year now. I never tire of reading his books. Every day I read a little bit from one of his books before I meditate. I am now on my sixth reading of A New Earth, and each time I gain new insights. A little Eckhart every day is good for the soul, and now with your podcasts and website I have yet another source of guidance. Thanks.
Comment by Scott McCoy on 29 April 2009:
Thanks for the website.
good stuff!
Comment by Clarence on 5 May 2009:
I have been listening to Eckhardt’s Cd’s from my local library extensively for three weeks and am trying so hard to live in the present. When I am doing that life is really fun and exciting interesting things just happen. But that old ego just loves to dwell on the past and future.
I have to laugh because I am a professional Santa Claus and belong to a State and National groups and when I apply Eckhardt’s ego teachings to our behavor it is BAZARROOOOW time on a personal level and on the group level. LOL
All of us Real fat real bearded Santa’s have a pain body that won’t stop!!!! One International group actually blew apart because of all the pain bodys in red suits were crashing into each other like a pac man game!!! It was a great International group but it blew completely apart like Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall!!!!
If you “NOW” living behavioral scientists or movie producers want to see or film something funny come to a Santa Claus web site or meeting. One of the web sites is AORBS.
Eckhardt’s work has certainly opened my eyes and mind.
Like he says once you know there is no return.
They have been Calling me Santa Clarence.
Thanks again for the gift of this great healing site!!
Comment by Greg on 20 May 2009:
Hey Santa Clarence.
It sounds like being a generous, kind-hearted Santa is the perfect role for an ego to usurp! What a clever disguise!
I’m glad to hear you have passed the point of no return. Welcome home!
All the best.
Greg
Comment by Kirk on 5 June 2009:
Tao Te Ching
Verse 62
Tao is the treasure-house
the true nature
the secret source of everything
It is the great wealth of those who are awake
the great protector of those still sleeping
If a person seems wicked
do not cast him away–
Awaken him with your words
Elevate him with your deeds
Requite his injury with your kindness
Do not cast him away
cast away his wickedness
When the emperor is crowned
or the three ministers installed
they receive a gift of jade and horses
But how can this compare
to sitting still and gaining the treasure of Tao
This is why the ancient masters
honored the inward path of Tao
DId they not say
“Seek and you will find”?
“Err and you will be forgiven”?
Within, within
This is where the world’s treasure has always been
Comment by Kirk on 5 June 2009:
Hey guys,
It’s good work you are doing. May it continue and may all participants be blessed with transformation and unity.
I would encourage everyone to also explore some other sources in their quest for consciousness. Heaven has given us a handful of Buddhas (enlightened masters, awakened ones) and all of them are have come to help us wake up.
Take the above post from the Tao Te Ching given to us by Lao Tzu. 81 verses to help light your inner path. Also, here are many sutras given us by the Buddha. And Jesus too was an enlightened master.
My only caution here is not to get attached to the man, for example, Tolle. When we look at modern day Christianity we can see what happens when the followers focus in too much on the man and in time miss and dilute the message. Christians today, as a result, have little clue at all about consciousness and sadly, most of them are sound asleep, even as they attend their churches each Sunday.
Men like Tolle are a door for us to enter through. I too am so grateful for his work, the Power of Now is certainly an inspired work that resonates with the message of the masters. Absorb it thoroughly as you are doing here. Just remember, to enter the room, you have to move beyond the door. The primary Buddha we seek is the one that lives within, and this is where truth will ultimately be revealed to you.
Let’s share our insights and experiences and let’s also invite the other master’s words in. In this way we can avoid the trap of focusing too much on the person, and at the same time, the work of Tolle will help illuminate the other master’s writings, while at the same time the other master’s writings will illuminate the work of Tolle for us.
Peace
Comment by Greg on 5 June 2009:
Hi Kirk,
Thanks so much for your support and for contributing! I have long resonated with the Tao Te Ching - in fact, it was the first spiritual teaching that I attracted after my spiritual quest to India in 1992.
Here is my favorite passage (second half of #67)
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, and compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
This is from Stephen Mitchell’s translation
Eckhart also references many teachers/teachings in all of his writings, Jesus, the Buddha, Zen masters, The Tao, A Course in Miracles - so your advice falls right in line with his approach.
Your caution is welcomed, and it may hit home with certain community members, but my sense is most of Eckhart’s fans are focused on the wisdom and insights, and not so much the man. It’s hard to focus on Tolle because he does not play up his superstar status. He is still very humble and approachable.
It’s funny you mention Christianity! I think aggravated Christians give more focus to Tolle than his fans. Christians focus to much on Tolle (or the mental image) and not so much the message. Most have not even read his books!
Yes, let’s share our insights and experiences and anyone is welcome to mention the works of other masters to help illuminate Tolle’s work!
Thanks so much Kirk and keep in touch!
Greg
Comment by Kirk on 16 June 2009:
Greg,
So happy to see my posts were received in the spirit they were given! Words are forms, as you know, and sometimes with the best intentions, the forms get in the way. I am still amazed how many ways I find myself still unconsciously attached to forms, and unconscious period for that matter.
I really haven’t heard from any Christians about Tolle, but I know in general,(sadly and ironically) they fight against teachings like Tolle’s and give it labels like “new age.” I come from the Christian background and it was my search for truth that led me there, but also led me beyond the form that Christianity has taken and now clings to.
Because of that background and in light of the consciousness I do have, I felt led to post what I did…not in accusation, but in genuine concern and awareness of human nature, the mind’s tendency to attach to forms, which is what being attached to any one leader or guide over another is. These are the very hindrances to enlightenment that “must be uprooted, thrown out and left behind.”
Greg, thank you for understanding and for the kind response.
Namaste
Comment by Kirk on 16 June 2009:
Greg, thank you also for you selection from the Tao Te Ching. In a sort of celebration of having been received well and to bring the discussion back along the lines of “The Power of Now.” I’ll offer one more verse:
Verse 21
Perfect action,
True virtue,
Supreme power,
This is how Tao is revealed
through those who follow it completely
Though formless and intangible
It gives rise to form
Though vague and elusive
It gives rise to shapes
Though dark and obscure
It is the spirit, the essence,
the life-breath of all things
“But is it real?” you ask–
I say its evidence is all of creation!
From the first moment to the present
The Name has been sounding
It is the gate
through which the universe enters
The witness
by which the universe sees
How have I come to know all this?
That very Name has told me,
That Name which is sounding right here,
right now
(Jonathan Star Translation)
Right here. Right now. Blessings to all.
Peace
Kirk
Pingback by Pain Bodies in the Classroom. [Who's "Fault" is it?] | elephant journal on 6 August 2009:
[...] a person functions from the level of pain body (which we all do at least occasionally) the blame game can occur. A person who doesn’t take [...]