Is it possible that there is something called a pain body which influences what I listen to and watch?

[DreamBliss]

Premise

My beliefs create my reality. Anything I choose to believe in becomes true for me in my experience.

 

I not wish to believe in, and as a result, create, any reality for me of something called ego, pain body, subconscious or unconscious.

 

It could be that these things things exist, if they do, they will exist independently of my belief in them.

 

For the purposes of this post, I am assuming that something called an ego, pain body and subconscious or unconscious exist. I will write this post with that assumption, not with that belief.

 

Post

As I meditated today it occurred to me that perhaps part of the reason my musical tastes have changed is that my pain body is no longer as active. That the music I was listening to was feeding my pain body, but as my pain body started dissolving, there was less to feed, so my music tastes changed.

 

I know there has to be something to this because my music tastes have gone to what is normally called “Trailer Music” which is primarily instrumental. Some electronic music, some stuff with more of a classical influence. The lyrics of the majority of what I feel most drawn to do not have a lot of pain in them, or none at all.

 

When I do listen to the kind of music I used to, it is usually when I am feeling alone, angry, depressed, isolated, etc. All negative emotions that the pain body would feed on.

 

Is it possible our pain bodies are influencing what we expose ourselves to, in order to compel us to expose ourselves to things that make us feel negative emotions the pain body can feed on?

 

What do you think? Is this a reasonable assumption, that at times it is not me choosing the music, but my pain body, in an attempt to feed itself?

 

If that is the case, is it better to cut myself off from music, or to take the opportunity when music is chosen that would inspire negative emotions to observe and practice presence?

 

Also, how do you look for music that will not feed the pain body? You can't enter “Pain Body” in your search criteria. So how do I find music that resonates with me and not my pain body? Is that even possible?

[Kubba]

Premise

My beliefs create my reality. Anything I choose to believe in becomes true for me in my experience.

 

I not wish to believe in, and as a result, create, any reality for me of something called ego, pain body, subconscious or unconscious.

 

It could be that these things things exist, if they do, they will exist independently of my belief in them.

 

For the purposes of this post, I am assuming that something called an ego, pain body and subconscious or unconscious exist. I will write this post with that assumption, not with that belief.

 

Post

As I meditated today it occurred to me that perhaps part of the reason my musical tastes have changed is that my pain body is no longer as active. That the music I was listening to was feeding my pain body, but as my pain body started dissolving, there was less to feed, so my music tastes changed.

 

I know there has to be something to this because my music tastes have gone to what is normally called “Trailer Music” which is primarily instrumental. Some electronic music, some stuff with more of a classical influence. The lyrics of the majority of what I feel most drawn to do not have a lot of pain in them, or none at all.

 

When I do listen to the kind of music I used to, it is usually when I am feeling alone, angry, depressed, isolated, etc. All negative emotions that the pain body would feed on.

 

Is it possible our pain bodies are influencing what we expose ourselves to, in order to compel us to expose ourselves to things that make us feel negative emotions the pain body can feed on?

 

What do you think? Is this a reasonable assumption, that at times it is not me choosing the music, but my pain body, in an attempt to feed itself?

 

If that is the case, is it better to cut myself off from music, or to take the opportunity when music is chosen that would inspire negative emotions to observe and practice presence?

 

Also, how do you look for music that will not feed the pain body? You can't enter “Pain Body” in your search criteria. So how do I find music that resonates with me and not my pain body? Is that even possible?

 

Eckhart Tolle has invented this word. As far as I understand it from my experience - the Pain Body is beyond subconscious mind, and is made of all kind of feelings that we identify with. It is under our thoughts. And it works 24 a day. You cannot enter the Pain Body, or go beyond its boundaries since you are all made of it.., You don't have any choice , and 99 choices are dictated by tendencies of Pain Body. If you alrady suffer of thinking weather to choose to cut yourself from thi or that music, this choice and pain comming from not knowing what to do already has its root in the Pain Body.

[Karl]

Certainly your beliefs create 'your reality', but reality exists regardless of your illusiory reality, because existence exists.

 

Ego, pain body, consciousness and sub consciousness are all you, existent as realities, regardless of what you believe. Reality will knock down the walls of your belief system and then perhaps you will try and rationalise that reality event with more beliefs in an attempt to prop up the structure.

[Kubba]

Certainly your beliefs create 'your reality', but reality exists regardless of your illusiory reality, because existence exists. Ego, pain body, consciousness and sub consciousness are all you,

That's not true.

How do you know?

Edited August 22, 2015 by Kubba

[Karl]

That's not true.

How do you know?

 

You already know the answer to that question.

[Kubba]

You already know the answer to that question.

Yes - you like to talk a lot, not actually knowing what you talk about

[Karl]

Yes - you like to talk a lot, not actually knowing what you talk about

 

Scintillating :-/

[Tibetan_Ice]

Eckhart Tolle has invented this word. As far as I understand it from my experience - the Pain Body is beyond subconscious mind, and is made of all kind of feelings that we identify with. It is under our thoughts. And it works 24 a day. You cannot enter the Pain Body, or go beyond its boundaries since you are all made of it.., You don't have any choice , and 99 choices are dictated by tendencies of Pain Body. If you alrady suffer of thinking weather to choose to cut yourself from thi or that music, this choice and pain comming from not knowing what to do already has its root in the Pain Body.

That is partially right. According to Eckart Tolle you can learn to identify the pain body and work with it..

He has many solutions and has written extensively on the subject.

 

From "Praticing The Power Of Now":

 

http://www.amazon.com/Practicing-Power-Now-Eckhart-Tolle-ebook/dp/B002361MNS/ref=tmm_kin_title_0

 

THE POWER OF YOUR PRESENCE

 

TO SUDDENLY SEE that you are or have been attached to your pain can be quite a shocking realization. The moment you realize this, you have broken the attachment.

 

The pain-body is an energy field, almost like an entity, that has become temporarily lodged in your inner space. It is life energy that has become trapped, energy that is no longer flowing.

 

Of course, the pain-body is there because of certain things that happened in the past. It is the living past in you, and if you identify with it, you identify with the past. A victim identity is the belief that the past is more powerful than the present, which is the opposite of the truth. It is the belief that other people and what they did to you are responsible for who you are now, for your emotional pain or your inability to be your true self.

 

The truth is that the only power there is, is contained within this moment: It is the power of your presence. Once you know that, you also realize that you are responsible for your inner space now —nobody else is —and that the past cannot prevail against the power of the Now.

 

Unconsciousness creates it; consciousness transmutes it into itself. St. Paul expressed this universal principle beautifully: “Everything is shown up by being exposed to the light, and whatever is exposed to the light itself becomes light.” Just as you cannot fight the darkness, you cannot fight the pain-body. Trying to do so would create inner conflict and thus further pain. Watching it is enough. Watching it implies accepting it as part of what is at that moment.

 

Edited August 22, 2015 by Tibetan_Ice

[Karl]

I would be careful dipping into the subconscious storehouse. It depends on the level of conscious stability in the present. If there has been trauma-even imaginary trauma-the release into the arena of conscious awareness can be a trickle followed by a flood pulse. It's best to take each emotion as it comes up and work with it. These negative aspects manifest during odd times when least expected. As each gets resolution it will clear a log jam of repressed emotions. If you can find a could therapist they can help disconnect events from the emotions and resolve issues painlessly by allowing the event to be seen in context. The emotion attached will leach away harmlessly.

[Michael Sternbach]

Your beliefs create your experience of reality - what you experience and how you experience it. They don't create the larger framework of reality which (luckily) has its independent existence, according to a set of non-arbitrary rules without which there would be no coherent and meaningful reality possible in the first place.

 

When Seth and others talk about "false beliefs", they refer to beliefs which are not in keeping with the rules of that reality. Since you are a co-creator, yoyr false beliefs do create an illusionary reality - although it appears permanent and convincing enough. This teaching is in fact in accordance with Eastern philosophies which emphasize that, in many ways, we don't perceive reality as it is but according to collective and individual delusions (maya).

[DreamBliss]

OK, I guess I should rephrase my premise to:

 

Your beliefs create your Action Reality, which is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just the reality you are experiencing right now, in this moment. You can change your reality by focusing instead on your Emotional Reality, which again is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just a better reality that you would like to be experiencing.

 

I have adopted the terms Action Reality and Emotional Reality from, "The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent" by Abraham-Hicks.

 

I don't know if that makes anything clearer, but understand when I say your beliefs create your reality, I mean YOUR beliefs create YOUR reality, the reality YOU experience. Also it is implied that this is YOUR Action Reality. It is Apparent Reality only, reality as apparent to YOU in this moment. It is not Ultimate Reality, and it can be changed. No reality YOU are experiencing is unchangeable. I should probably detail those steps in another thread.

 

With this premise in mind, perhaps you can understand why I am careful about what I believe and refer to as reality. I am not saying there is something called a Pain Body. But, under the assumption, not belief, that one exists, can it affect the things you expose yourself to, in order to rouse negative emotion in you, so it can feed off of it.

[Tibetan_Ice]

Feeding the pain body... According to Tolle...

 

The pain-body wants to survive, just like every other entity in existence, and it can only survive if it gets you to unconsciously identify with it. It can then rise up, take you over, “become you,” and live through you.

 

It needs to get its “food” through you. It will feed on any experience that resonates with its own kind of energy, anything that creates further pain in whatever form: anger, destructiveness, hatred, grief, emotional drama, violence, and even illness. So the pain-body, when it has taken you over, will create a situation in your life that reflects back its own energy frequency for it to feed on.

 

Pain can only feed on pain. Pain cannot feed on joy. It finds it quite indigestible. Once the pain-body has taken you over, you want more pain. You become a victim or a perpetrator. You want to inflict pain, or you want to suffer pain, or both. There isn't really much difference between the two. You are not conscious of this, of course, and will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others.

 

If you were truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane. The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually afraid of the light of your consciousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as well as on your unconscious fear of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you don't face it, if you don't bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again.

 

Edited August 23, 2015 by Tibetan_Ice

[Michael Sternbach]

OK, I guess I should rephrase my premise to:

 

Your beliefs create your Action Reality, which is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just the reality you are experiencing right now, in this moment. You can change your reality by focusing instead on your Emotional Reality, which again is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just a better reality that you would like to be experiencing.

 

I have adopted the terms Action Reality and Emotional Reality from, "The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent" by Abraham-Hicks.

 

I don't know if that makes anything clearer, but understand when I say your beliefs create your reality, I mean YOUR beliefs create YOUR reality, the reality YOU experience. Also it is implied that this is YOUR Action Reality. It is Apparent Reality only, reality as apparent to YOU in this moment. It is not Ultimate Reality, and it can be changed. No reality YOU are experiencing is unchangeable. I should probably detail those steps in another thread.

 

With this premise in mind, perhaps you can understand why I am careful about what I believe and refer to as reality. I am not saying there is something called a Pain Body. But, under the assumption, not belief, that one exists, can it affect the things you expose yourself to, in order to rouse negative emotion in you, so it can feed off of it.

 

 

I find this differentiation into Action Reality and Ultimate Reality clarifies things. Based on some observations, I tend to agree to the assumption that there is something in us seeking out and reinforcing painful experiences. Many years ago, I read about this in Chris Griscom's Time is an Illusion. However, she doesn't call it a "body"; it would at most be a certain part of the emotional body (one of the layers of the subtle body in her scheme which at least in this agrees with the Theosophic writers).

Edited August 23, 2015 by Michael Sternbach

[Karl]

OK, I guess I should rephrase my premise to:

 

Your beliefs create your Action Reality, which is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just the reality you are experiencing right now, in this moment. You can change your reality by focusing instead on your Emotional Reality, which again is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just a better reality that you would like to be experiencing.

 

I have adopted the terms Action Reality and Emotional Reality from, "The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent" by Abraham-Hicks.

 

I don't know if that makes anything clearer, but understand when I say your beliefs create your reality, I mean YOUR beliefs create YOUR reality, the reality YOU experience. Also it is implied that this is YOUR Action Reality. It is Apparent Reality only, reality as apparent to YOU in this moment. It is not Ultimate Reality, and it can be changed. No reality YOU are experiencing is unchangeable. I should probably detail those steps in another thread.

 

With this premise in mind, perhaps you can understand why I am careful about what I believe and refer to as reality. I am not saying there is something called a Pain Body. But, under the assumption, not belief, that one exists, can it affect the things you expose yourself to, in order to rouse negative emotion in you, so it can feed off of it.

 

You could believe that because you took out an umbrella that it rained, or that your consciousness was manifesting objective reality, or you always have bad luck, or the Sun is dragged about the Sky by invisible serpents, or that you are a bad person that should be punished etc etc.

 

It isn't so much a creation of reality but a misunderstanding of it.

[Michael Sternbach]

You could believe that because you took out an umbrella that it rained, or that your consciousness was manifesting objective reality, or you always have bad luck, or the Sun is dragged about the Sky by invisible serpents, or that you are a bad person that should be punished etc etc. It isn't so much a creation of reality but a misunderstanding of it.

 

It is a creation insofar you tend to attract people and circumstances to you that are in line with your beliefs - "as within, so without". Moreover, you will filter and interpret all information that reaches you in light of your beliefs. Thus, beliefs are self-reaffirming and largely create your personal reality.

[Karl]

It is a creation insofar you tend to attract people and circumstances to you that are in line with your beliefs - "as within, so without". Moreover, you will filter and interpret all information that reaches you in light of your beliefs. Thus, beliefs are self-reaffirming and largely create your personal reality.

 

I don't like the word 'attract', but most definitely you end up 'attracted to' situations and people that align with your beliefs.

If the beliefs are in contradiction/conflict then they cause suffering.

[Kubba]

OK, I guess I should rephrase my premise to:

 

Your beliefs create your Action Reality, which is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just the reality you are experiencing right now, in this moment. You can change your reality by focusing instead on your Emotional Reality, which again is not any sort of Ultimate Reality, just a better reality that you would like to be experiencing.

 

I have adopted the terms Action Reality and Emotional Reality from, "The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent" by Abraham-Hicks.

 

I don't know if that makes anything clearer, but understand when I say your beliefs create your reality, I mean YOUR beliefs create YOUR reality, the reality YOU experience. Also it is implied that this is YOUR Action Reality. It is Apparent Reality only, reality as apparent to YOU in this moment. It is not Ultimate Reality, and it can be changed. No reality YOU are experiencing is unchangeable. I should probably detail those steps in another thread.

 

With this premise in mind, perhaps you can understand why I am careful about what I believe and refer to as reality. I am not saying there is something called a Pain Body. But, under the assumption, not belief, that one exists, can it affect the things you expose yourself to, in order to rouse negative emotion in you, so it can feed off of it.

Dream,

A lot of words . According to Anadi, who has developed a nice "map" - First thing to do would be to develop constant awarness and realise it - awarness withouth mind objects. With it then you can overcome the mind and its problems of subconsciouss nature, cause you can simply track them to their roots. then you reach another thing which is all sorts of feelings which lies under the mind, and are related to different regions of the body. You no longer react with thoughts, but still there are this feelings/sensations that different situations still trigger. At this point you see clearly that you are also made of this emotions, and not only painfull, cause there is also excitement, pleasure, greef... Almost unnotacible feelings and they are almost impossible to notice with accompaniament of the mind.

 

Prior to that I would say that yoga purify it really good. One monk has also reccomended me once TRE exercises which work really good for this Pain body withouth the mind effort to find out...

Edited August 23, 2015 by Kubba

[de_paradise]

Pain body is as much a metaphor (hats off to Tolle for creating such a well named metaphor) as much as demon,  karma,  the evil inclination, ego, "Egypt" are also metaphors. Of course the metaphors you choose tend to shape your reality, because they shape the parameters of cognition.

 

Pain body which leads to melencholy music that leads to further depression is clearly adding to the problem, however someone on the spiritual path or some path of self-improvement  may use these moments to understand and turn sad music into catharsis not depression. Nobody said that digging deep will not help spiritual progress. But one must have the sense to navigate negative emotions and not get lost in all the associations and feelings that come.

 

You may be heart-broken that  you have not made much progress on the spiritual path, and that technique is known (Rabbi Nachman of Breslov) as "lathe-nizhbor" using broken heartedness to springboard  (there is a higher energetic component hard to explain) to a deeper resolve to oneness with God.  In Liao Fan's Four Lessons he also mentions using shame, the deep feeling of shame, followed by deep resolve to purify one's actions to attain Buddhahood.  Of course, using these negative emotions one must be careful not to go into depression.

 

So I hope I have entirely reframed your question of beliefs creating reality, to someone who is drawn towards spiritual progress and is advancing, no matter what system of metaphors one uses and how much of our commentary is just noise.

[Spotless]

The pain body referred to by Tolle is well laid out.

 

It is not "one body" but a group of patterns.

 

As you grow and transform some patterns re-pattern and continue while some will pretty much cease and dissipate altogether.

 

Qi Gong and Yoga as well as some other practices breakdown blocking patterns quite mechanically - and they strengthen natural patterns. Dietary changes also effect patterned energies quite mechanically.

 

Whole groups of patterns are interconnected by frequencies that effect them - thought forms - tuning forks - emotional states - these are the same things basically. Your positions.

 

As your Positions mature your prison matures - maturity assumes wisdom - this is not the case.

 

Wisdom is in the laying aside of Positions - often we reinforce our positions - in fact our looping mind does this constantly.

 

Your question might be better understood if you were to ask the same question in this way:

 

"Is it possible that there are energy patterns within "my" space that effect what I listen to and watch?"

 

Yes - and these patterns are constantly changing (hopefully vibrantly changing)

 

----

 

The "pain" portion of patterns in general refers to patterns from and of Positions.

Patterns formed within identification on some level with various touch points that re-vitalize the pattern.

Re-vitalizations of the pattern creates the feed point - if the looping mind does what it usually does - a swarm of defense positions are also vitalized - massive looping - or if you are more emotionally centered - you may become extremely incensed or drop to depression or move from top dog to a whimpering pup or the other way around. Any and all of this may happen within seconds of rubbing up near a frequency that is either in agreement or disagreement with the pattern of Position(s).

 

The "pain body" could also be called the "noise body" - it is what I call it - the word "pain" works well but diminishes how we see the idea because of the emotions it ilicits. The pain body / noise body goes beyond anything we would associate with pain but it is precisely what Tolle is referring to.

 

We live our noise - we love our noise - we defend our noise - we dispise our noise - our noise is our full time life - it is the life we live - it is all the "I's" we become at any given whim presented a frequency to our awareness.

Edited August 23, 2015 by Spotless

[Miffymog]

Just to add my thoughts on what the pain body is - (which overlaps with what others have said here).

 

Not so long ago there was quite a lot of tension inside of me (physical/emotional/spiritual?). Just like Tolle explained in his book, The Power of Now', I would find in certain challenging situations almost my whole body would tense up. I guess it was kind of protecting me, but it was very much an overreaction to what was going on. I found that by practising ZZ, this 'pain body' began to dissolve by slowly sinking into the ground. After about 4 months, I had found this tension had gone and I am now much more calm and relaxed. The best explanation I've found for this is what Tolle called the 'pain body'.

 

Whether the dissolving of this has affected what I listen to and watch, I'm not so sure, but I am more relaxed, so possibly.