Pain has a lot to teach us. Pain shows us that pain is a given, but suffering comes from resistance to that pain. You know, if there was no pain in the world, there would be no compassion in the world. And if we did not experience the state of mind of compassion, we would remain unwhole. And pain does another thing.
Pain attracts grief.
So it gives you an opportunity to work on things that are very deep, to bring them to the surface. It gives us a chance to touch with mercy and loving kindness parts of ourselves that we have ostracized, that we send hatred into. So what pain does is to access our suffering, if we can work with it. You start working with the little daily pains. All the stuff we're able to suppress, that are just little things, that are the things of the preciousness of life that we can work with to free ourselves, so that we build the capacity to keep the heart open even in hell.