The Power of Mindfulness and Meditation for Pain Reduction

Mindfulness in Eight Weeks by Michael Chaskalson

In ancient times, arrows were used in hunting and also as weapons of war. If you were struck by one of them, you really felt it. Taking that as an analogy, the very early practitioners of mindfulness spoke of two arrows – the first one is physical and the second one is mental.

When the unmindful person is struck by an arrow, he or she is then very rapidly struck by a second arrow.

Imagine you’re on a battlefield and you’re hit by an arrow. That hurts! But then very rapidly another arrow comes flying in as your mind get going. “Why does this sort of thing happen to me?” “What’s going to happen now?” “How am I ever going to recover?” “I knew I should have never come to this battlefield“.” “I should have done better training!” On and on – your mind rapidly produces further arrows that add to the pain of the first one.

When the mindful person is struck by an arrow, they said in ancient times, they feel the pain of the arrow – and it stops there.

The first arrow represents the suffering that comes to all of us just from being human. Often, we don’t get what we want instead get want we don’t want. And even when we do get what we want, it’s impossible to hold on to it forever. That’s part of being human. But the way in which we usually deal with the pain and difficultly that comes our way causes us to be struck by the second, third, fourth and fifth arrows – and all of these are self-generated.

Pain - Suffering occurs on two levels.

Firstly, there are the actual sensations felt in the body – this is known as ‘Primary Suffering’. This is sent to the brain from an injury, an ongoing illness or changes to the nervous system itself.

On top of this is ‘Secondary Suffering’, which is made up of all the thoughts, feelings, emotions and memories associated with the pain. These might include anxiety, stress, worry, depression.

The pain and distress that you feel are actually made from both Primary and Secondary.

If you can learn to separate the two you can greatly reduce, or even eliminate your pain.

Secondary Suffering tends to dissolve when you observe it with the mind’s eye. Mindfulness can allows you to do this.

It’s important to understand that although the sensation of pain is created by the mind, your suffering is still real. You really do feel it. It exists and it can be genuinely overwhelming. But once you understand that you can control the secondary pain, it can start to lesson.

Meditation is a great way to practice patience.

“Drop by drop is the water pot filled. Likewise, the wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good.” The Buddha