Who Is Having This Pain?
¿Quién sufre este dolor?--por Mingyur Rinpoche
La buena noticia sobre el dolor es que clama por tu atención. Si concentras tu atención en él, sabes exactamente dónde está. La clave está en ser consciente de la mente. La mayoría de las veces, cuando el dolor exige atención, respondemos intentando deshacernos de él. El dolor se convierte en un objeto externo a la mente que necesita ser echado, expulsado. He aquí el aspecto curioso y contraintuitivo del dolor: cuando nos resistimos al dolor, este no disminuye. Al contrario, añadimos sufrimiento al dolor. La sensación de dolor surge en el cuerpo. La reacción negativa al dolor surge en la mente del yo fijo y transforma el dolor físico en un enemigo. Así es como surge el sufrimiento. Cuando intentamos deshacernos del dolor, nos enfrentamos a nosotr@s mism@s, convirtiéndonos en zonas de guerra privadas, entornos poco propicios para la sanación. Para muchas personas, la autocompasión se adhiere a la enfermedad como pegamento, y la voz del ego pregunta: "¿Por qué a mí?". Sin embargo, esta voz no reside en el dolor del cuerpo, sino en la mente que se identifica con él.
Empecé a meditar sobre el dolor dirigiendo mi mente a la sensación de calambres estomacales. Luego, dejándola reposar allí. Simplemente estar con la sensación de dolor. Sin aceptación ni rechazo. Solo sentir. Explorar la sensación. No dejarse atrapar por una historia sobre los calambres, simplemente sentirlos. Después de unos minutos, comencé a investigar: ¿Cuál es la naturaleza de esta sensación? ¿Dónde reside? Trasladé mi mente de la superficie a mi estómago, al dolor mismo. Entonces pregunté: ¿Quién tiene este dolor?
¿Uno de mis roles más queridos?
Son solo conceptos.
El dolor es un concepto.
El calambre es un concepto.
Permanecer en la consciencia más allá de los conceptos.
Deja que el yo más allá del yo acomode tanto los conceptos como la ausencia de conceptos: dolor y no dolor.
El dolor es solo una nube que atraviesa la mente consciente.
Los calambres, el estómago, el dolor son formas intensas de consciencia. Mantente consciente y trasciende el dolor. En la conciencia, como en el cielo, no hay lugar para que el concepto habite.
Déjalo venir. Déjalo ir. ¿Quién sostiene el dolor? Si te unes a tu dolor, no hay nadie a quien herir. Solo hay una sensación concentrada que etiquetamos como dolor. Nadie sostiene el dolor.
¿Qué sucede cuando nadie sostiene el dolor?
Solo dolor. En realidad, ni siquiera eso, porque el dolor es solo una etiqueta.
Siente la sensación. Más allá del concepto, pero presente. Nada más.
Experiméntala. Déjala ser.
Luego volví a descansar mi mente en una conciencia abierta.
Preguntas semilla para la reflexión: ¿Qué opinas de la idea de que el dolor se convierte en un enemigo cuando nos enfrentamos a él, convirtiendo nuestro mundo interior en una zona de guerra privada? ¿Podrías compartir una historia personal que ilustre un momento en el que experimentaste un cambio en tu relación con el dolor, ya sea a través de la aceptación, la exploración o simplemente permitiéndolo ser? ¿Qué te ayuda a mantener la consciencia más allá de conceptos como el cielo, permitiendo que las sensaciones surjan sin apego ni resistencia?
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche es un maestro tibetano-nepalí de los linajes Karma Kagyu y Nyingma del budismo tibetano. Ha escrito cinco libros y dirige una red internacional de centros de meditación.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is a Tibetan Nepali teacher and master of the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. He has written five books and oversees an international network of meditation centers.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What do you make of the notion that pain becomes an enemy when we pit ourselves against it, turning our inner world into a private war zone? Can you share a personal story that illustrates a time when you experienced a shift in your relationship with pain, whether through acceptance, exploration, or simply allowing it to be? What helps you stay with the awareness beyond concepts, like sky, allowing sensations to come and go without attachment or resistance?
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12 Past Reflections
On Jul 2, 2025 Sonia Uttamchandani wrote :
This weekend I attended a spiritually cleansing retreat called Maitri Chitta Shudhi. Here they spoke about how we build our Sanskaras thanks ro the play of mind in constantly extracting concepts out of our experiences in the world. Someone used the wrong words, wrong tone to my liking, immediately my mind works to extract a concept of must do or must not do : Avoid this person, avoid people who dress, sound or give out energy like him.
So from this concept we dilute our capacity to further explore/experience because now mind has caged us into categories and flow chart extracted from the concept of right and wrong we placed thanks to this person.
Ergo, we bit by bit with such a process, lose curiosity, being present, rooting and nurturing a habit that life around me must be only to my liking and preferences. Anything not like that, now has the power to disturb me, move me to take actions to oppose/control/rectify it and I am now against teh world. My energy focused not on enhancing m... [View Full Comment]
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On Jul 2, 2025 Marliese wrote :
Hi, thanks for this little reminder.
I have the experience of pain by accepting it day by day. Pain is there, I feel it but I don’t recognize it. I give it no room to control my life. In rare cases, when It is to hard to endure, I take medication to alleviate my pain.
I have the experience of pain by accepting it day by day. Pain is there, I feel it but I don’t recognize it. I give it no room to control my life. In rare cases, when It is to hard to endure, I take medication to alleviate my pain.
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On Jul 1, 2025 Jack Talcott wrote :
I would love for some of your commentors to commentors to come on my podcast on youtube at Jack Talcott so we can discuss pain and bring in more pain into out life so we can become super powers of pain. I have created so much pain in my life. I hate my son, myself, and most everyone and I want to reclaim the earth as I have been chosen by god.
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On Jul 1, 2025 Anne Turner wrote :
This was a very interesting & insight how look at pain
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On Jul 1, 2025 Stream wrote :
Aloha- I am a wholistic physical therapist. Much of my career was based in helping other beings resolve physical pain. I learned from being with others experiencing pain and thru my own that relaxation is a first step.
Being in the sympathetic nervous system reaction of anger , fear does not allow healing to occur.
Getting into parasympathetic and getting out of the way allows my or our natural innate to bring circulation of what is needed to heal and to eliminate what is needed to release.
I have a few pains on physical level at the moment. A knee, a wrist, a tooth. There are possible medical or wholistic treatments and techniques to pursue . I am aware that the first thing for me is to accept and feel, allow grief or any underlying shadow beliefs that are holding on to surface and flow. I know that there are always
Psycho emotional and spiritual aspects of all physically experienced pains even if mechanical or chemical cause is clear.
If I can feel it, I can heal it.
And lovin... [View Full Comment]
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On Jul 1, 2025 Brian Besser wrote :
Pain is obligatory. Suffering is optional.
1 reply: David | Post Your Reply
On Jul 1, 2025 Susan B. wrote :
This is a valuable and encouraging reminder of equanimity. I am grateful for this in my early morning here in Mexico. Compassionate Acknowledgment and Acceptance ... For those with constant pain, labeling pain as a concept, seems dismissive, and that perhaps the writer may not understand how debilitating the pain can be... however, accepting the pain, the circumstance at that moment that comes with the pain, and taking wise and compassionate self-care of one's self (slower movement, the need to stop and rest, whatever it may be) is a good thing. This brings calm to the mind and spirit, lessens anxiety and rambling thoughts. This is also a reminder to become equanimous with the residual emotions that come along with any pain we experience - Compassionately Acknowledge and Accept them, Breath, move forward...
Something else that I learned from this group nearly 2 decades ago, is in the midst of my pain to be of service to others. Being of service does not take the pain away, but it d... [View Full Comment]
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On Jul 1, 2025 BarbaraS. wrote :
I appreciate this article very much and completely understand what he is trying to say. I realize some people are in physical debilitating pain all the time and it must be very difficult. They must come to terms with the pain in a way that they can live with it. Pain is not our enemy. It just is.
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On Jun 28, 2025 David Doane wrote :
I agree that pain becomes an enemy when we pit ourselves against it. Pain is actually our friend, telling us that something isn't right and needs attention. Don't go to war with pain, listen to it to find out what it is signaling and then address the problem. I don't agree that pain is a concept. The word pain is a concept; pain itself is a real feeling. How I suffer my pain is another issue. I can suffer it wisely to alleviate or at least not increase pain, or I can suffer it unwisely and create more pain. Life provides pain; we provide how we suffer it. When I became aware of that I experienced a shift in my relationship with pain. What helps me stay with awareness is knowing there is reality and there are concepts about reality, and I want to be aware of reality. It helps me to know that sensations, just like everything, come and go, whether I allow that or not. It also helps me to know pain is worth heeding and learning from, not attach to it or resist it.
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On Jun 28, 2025 Jagdish P Dave wrote :
I deeply appreciate Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's reflections on pain. We all experience different kinds of pain such as physical, mental, emotional, relational and spiritual in our life. We cannot avoid it or escape from it. How we relate to our pain is very crucial. We cannot avoid our pain. Denying pain, ignoring pain, resisting pain and fighting pain is not a wise way of relating to pain. Pain is not our enemy. When I go through pain I accept it and take it as a signal to take care of it in a wise way. This way I can be a friend to my pain rather than an enemy. By resisting my pain I fight against my own pain. I turn my "inner world into a private war zone." It is up to me to choose and follow the wise way-neither denying nor fighting but by accepting it.
I have had all kinds of pain -physical, mental , emotional and relational-in my relatively long life. As I am getting older I experience more physical pain. Sometimes sad feelings and thoughts about my passing away from this ... [View Full Comment]