Pain
A disruption in stability or equilibrium.
Our capacity to experience pain is an evolved trait that informs an animal that something is wrong. This seems straight-forward enough, but whenever a phenomenon is stretched by the human mind, it takes on a predictable complexity.
We are notoriously inept at honestly legitimizing our disequilibrium. Physical pain is easier to reconcile as there is often a particular part of the body that can be examined to reach a reasonable conclusion, but even then, the BRAIN is a lawyer and a trickster. When mental or emotional pain is involved, and our discomfort is entirely internalized in some sense, it becomes much more difficult to pinpoint its genesis.
Our perceptions alone can cause us pain, but it is rare that we verify their truth or accuracy. Our belief in the legitimacy of our own pain is often enough for us claim it is valid, and due to the empathetic nature of others, they will often take our word for it. Additionally, this creates a game wherein the claim of pain is sufficient to warrant attention and care, taking for granted that all pain is legitimate and equally deserving of attention. What if we are wrong about our pain? What if it is based on an illusion or a misunderstanding? What if we are lying to ourselves and others because we like the attention it purchases?
The temptation to find a target for our pain - an origin point - is potent. We do not want to feel pain, and we often choose the immediacy of temporary relief over the additional pain that compounds when we search for a higher order insight into the nature of our pain. It is this preference for immediate consolation that is directly responsible for a resentment that is difficulty to satiate. We will target one thing after another in search of relief, when the source of our pain in most frequently our inability to reconcile ourselves and our expectations with reality in a manner that is commensurate with our suffering.
Human existence is most accurately defined by suffering; this is not a pessimistic outlook. Pain and suffering, indicators of disequilibrium, are the fuel for human action, propelling us towards a desire to understand things well enough to integrate them into our being. Aside from clear actions that demand compensatory punishment, our suffering should never be used to cause more suffering, especially not to others.
Curiously, of all the emotions we can experience, pain is the only one without a saturation point. This means that there is no limit to the amount of pain we can experience. Things can always be made worse, and we can always be made to suffer more. This is what it means to be a product of a competitive process called evolution. I did not choose it and neither did you, but living a life defined by avoiding pain at all costs, or numbing it and missing its goading nature, is to live in a manner that is antithetical to what we are.
We should avoid unnecessary pain when we can, but welcome the requisite amount of pain necessary to develop our adaptive tendencies.
The tricky part is distinguishing between the two.
Posted: 2 Jan 2023
