Can Meditation Get Rid of Pain and Suffering?

Can meditation get rid of pain and suffering? And when pain arises during meditation how can we tell if it is physical pain or psychological pain or trauma?
Rupert says if, during meditation, you experience pain in your body check that it is not an abscess or a growth or something like that. If it's not, the chances are that it is old residues in your body of emotional trauma from early in your life. In that case it's not physical pain but a manifestation or contraction in your body that comes from emotional suffering. It should not be resisted - it should be welcomed.
Physical pain, on the other hand, is supposed to be resisted. That is an expression of intelligence. It's not the separate self that avoids physical pain. But the avoidance that takes place in emotional suffering is the avoidance of a separate self. You have to distinguish between the two.
*This video clip was taken at one of Rupert's in person retreats. To view and book for upcoming retreats (many of which can be attended online via livestream) go to:
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Timestamps:
0:00 Can Meditation Get Rid Of Pain?
1:44 Embracing Your Pain
3:31 The Inward-Facing Path
4:31 The Nature Of Awareness
5:09 Spiritual Awakening
5:32 The Outward-Facing Path
6:10 What Is Trauma?
6:42 Updating Your Beliefs
7:02 Investigating Your True Nature
7:26 What Is Enlightenment?
9:48 Pain Arising During Meditation
10:18 Embrace Your Suffering
11:33 Dealing With Physical Pain
13:43 Physical Pain Should Be Resisted
14:03 Dealing With Emotional Pain
15:19 Do Not Resist Emotional Pain
15:53 The Separate Self
16:33 Avoiding Physical Pain
16:45 Avoiding Emotional Suffering
17:26 Who Is Resisting Pain?
18:08 What Is Emotional Suffering?
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RS19143i

[@robertcarpenter6800]

I appreciate the courage and persistence of the young mans questions...

[@ravenwild5184]

I see it as a stuck and stubborn mind trying to understand what cannot be understood by the mind. There is a need to let go of seeking mental understanding here and all will be known from being true self.

[@robertcarpenter6800]

start where you are…

[@robertcarpenter6800]

it’s easy to arrive at an intellectual equanimity with questions like these. to honestly struggle with this can be very fruitful…

[@ravenwild5184]

@@robertcarpenter6800 guess it all depends on what your aim is. Rupert is teaching/pointing to Nondual awakening which is Not about intellectual equanimity or even believing in a person so who is there to have this illusory understanding? If the aim is for a fruitful experience or knowing then drop all this seeking and simply inquire within, this is where the sweetest and ripest fruit is, the fruit of our true essence. Blessings to you Robert. PS...I am a recovering seeker who could not and would not surrender my seeming endless need to Know and Understand. Such a glorious relief to now simply Be and accept whatever arises in each moment as life in it's fullness.

[@TheDeepening718]

Imagination can cause problems. If you can somehow turn your imagination off, this would help. I had to sit in my gunner's hatch in full gear when the temperature was 120+ degrees, and I learned that when I imagined myself burning, the pain was worse, but If I could shut off the minds imagery it wasn't nearly as bad.

[@paulpeterson9721]

A friend once told me he had 3000 crises in his life. Two of them were actually real…

[@jackroberts416]

​@@paulpeterson9721 "Real"

[@consideredwhisper]

Such clarity. A very helpful exchange, thank you.

[@simka321]

It would have helped the questioner, I think - instead of repeating the phrase “emotional suffering,” as a contrast to the intelligent resistance to pain - to have used terms like “distress” or “irritation” instead. The querant was clearly getting hung up on the “suffering” component of Rupert’s terminology. Awakened minds experience pain and resistance, but do not add a layer of narrative that mistakenly identifies the body as “myself” because doing so only adds a supernumerary association of unnecessary (emotional) distress on top of the unavoidable awareness of perceived injury to the organism. Pain is a physical sensation. Distress is an emotional interpretation.

[@ravenwild5184]

Basically words just cannot answer when seeking knowing our True Being. Only inner inquiry and inner experience can bring the awareness he seeks. This is all ultimately mental masturbation. Pointers are lovely but mind to mind will never reveal our true nature. I believe you get this, blessings ❤

[@lookmagazine2667]

Great questions!!

[@peacenlove6502]

3 steps : First recognise true self that it exist's .....then understand it's essential nature - is peace and fullfillment ....abide in it consistently - Rupert Spira

[@melleamagic]

Would it be possible to make these recordings a bit louder? I have a hard time hearing them, even when my laptop is on full volume. Thank you for the valuable content, Rupert & team 🙏

[@truesight91]

Meditation can help raise Awareness to "feel" the pain fully so it is actually felt on a greater level and then can be released and healed. Often we are too unaware and numb to realize.

[@JohnTwarowski]

Yes, meditation as awareness of your daily life, outward as well as the inner awareness of thought processes. It's not a process of isolation (sitting in a corner but rather conscious awareness of daily living which is a hard work by the way. The egoic mind, the false sense of self with its ancient habit will not give up so easily so you can reclaim your original, natural state of "choiceless awareness". "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free", but first it will piss you off.

[@wattaura7621]

I could always blame this separate Rupert guy, yet it's still happening within me. I'll just replace my old habits with new habits instead. 💚

[@JohnTwarowski]

That's right, that's the nature of the mind to wander around within our consciousness and there is nothing right or wrong about, it is as it is. But ever mind the mind it's the Heart that counts.@@wattaura7621

[@rmschindler144]

The absolutely critical point, in my view (-I advise taking this at the peril of all the parts of us holding on to suffering), is to feel the love of God. To feel it, it only takes listening-but listening like you’re actually expecting a direct contact. In practicing this kind of listening, my experience has been that all my doubts and fears have come to the fore, almost as if they come up out of the woodwork in response to the acknowledgement of a divine presence, almost as if they want to move on to other realms to express their own natures, but got a little bit stuck atime, almost as if it is a kind of stagnation which is the root of all human predicaments. No sooner does the blazing divinity step onto the stage of the life you think you have, than all the incongruent components deliver themselves up to that divinity to be transfigured and transported. My advice, in case these words resonate with you, is to lean in to the feeling of the love of God; strip out the intellectual layers separating you from that knowing; excise them. The most obvious thing in my life which often people are surprised to hear is this: the heart is in charge.

[@mademoiselle9370]

Happiness and calmness to everyone 🌎

[@peterlangbridge4628]

​@@SIMPLY_HUMAN2Everyone wants to be happy. The rest is distraction.

[@paulpeterson9721]

Thank-you

[@arturtarnowski4023]

To You too! Best comment ever:) ❤️

[@Mars-rh1zy]

Not possible, this planet is a Reincarnation soul trap designed to keep us experiencing fear, stress, etc - which is food for the dark beings that created this matrix we find ourselves in.

[@paulpeterson9721]

@@Mars-rh1zy if it is, it is of our own making. The ego who thinks it is the source of life and and wants you to believe this. This is what Buddha suggested in his 4 Noble Truths. Only in believing it is a trap, does it become one. Suffering is of our own accord. There are several spiritual teachers over thousands of years that have tried to show a way out. Christ, Buddha , great mystics and so forth . When people have had enough of suffering these paths are available. It’s the ego that chooses suffering. That is what one must learn to tame in many of these paths

[@XenosFiles]

What Rupert said about resistance is wrong. Personal resistance is suffering. If you want to stop suffering, you must stop resisting. Yes the body has natural resistance mechanisms which you needn't fight against. Allow your body to be healthy, it is living it’s purpose. But the body is not you. You don’t have health or pain or fear. You just identify with those things.

[@shlomo8448]

That was a really good question

[@Buddhishgirl]

All yes! 😂 I think this man had a lot on his mind 🤭 great introspection.

[@bahmannilipour1525]

Just the way he speaks....❤

[@siobhanfoley-findingpeace]

When we welcome physical pain, it reduces and dissolves the pain. That's because we must resist anything in order to experience it...

[@angeloiodice9304]

But, in a broader, uncomplicated, unintelectualized approach, pain or disharmony on any level from any source must be acknowledged and watched, witnessed, observed, and then one must inquire, “Who is the one observing the pain.” Immediately, the answer springs up, The awareness of “I.”

[@edgarmorales4476]

Meditation should be - eventually - as simple as slipping into slumber. The purpose of meditation is to enable your entire consciousness to move beyond the boundaries of intellect and reason. Therefore, beware of teachers who will tell you to "imagine"... whatever you are told to "imagine," you can rest assured you are not being assisted to go anywhere except into new imaginative realms of your own thought processes. What this method of "meditating" will achieve for you will be a relief from the thoughts and stress that the Ego (the guardian of individuality) pressures are creating for you. In the world of imagination, the Ego (the guardian of individuality) may - or may not - be dormant.

[@lookmagazine2667]

At some level of intensity, physical pain is accompanied by emotional suffering I think.

[@shlomo8448]

I feel my emotional pain as super physical and fells unbearable at times and it just gets worse when I meditate. Ouch so much pain in my heart

[@wattaura7621]

Awareness knows 💚

[@hendithio7269]

how should we react if we see other in physical pain from a perspective that we dont really recognise the existance of separate self? Or with other words, how could you mantain the understanding of the nature of our self without feeling of the physical pain? Whose "I" that feeling the physical pain if the nature of true I is different than / not the same as feeling ( separate self)????

[@gadjodilo22]

so if we are all are already enlightened. how come the room full of people or we or i am suffering. how do we know this knowing that we are already what we seek. The mind cannot get us there, then how do we remain in the recognise our true nature consistently enough how do we not make suffering greater than life and knowing the true nature of our self over and over again.

[@yokaijem]

I am curious if rupert can comment on this.. my experience the past few years has lined up incredibly with Rupert's teachings. I had quite a bit of existential anxiety and dread a few years ago that spirituality helped me release, but tbe past 6 months or so its almost like my body and mind are getting anxious about spirituality as well. Every so often i will get very scared of the path but i seem to rotate back and forth between being in dire need of peace of pure awareness and afraid of going deep into my own being.

[@3rin649]

I think this is a normal part of the process, the ego is very strong :)

[@jennythescreech]

I'm exactly in the same boat as you with this! Been oscillating back and forth for a few years now, trying to be patient with the strong fear. Ego patterns run deep!

[@goodvibesbroadcast4029]

😂just relax ,my advise would be start one hobby of creativity and do it consciously that will help you to transform unnecessary turbulence energy into something creative and fulfilling pattern, also keep observing, which will bring awareness naturally or start learning something new , remember spirituality is very long unending process 🤭I am also struggling to get rid off mechanical thought process of mind but they don't leave so easily... good luck 👍

[@MTandersson9]

ooo, let me guess, you're afraid you're going insane? that you're developing schizophrenia? That if you keep going you'll just wake up one day and lose your sh**?

[@paulpeterson9721]

Best to have no aversion or attraction. Best to be non-attached. Not detached from the world and not of the world either. Just to be in the world with a posture of non-attachment. The world happens around you and your body is a Karmic player, but you yourself are just the watcher.

[@TheDeepening718]

rising and falling just watching dispassion disenchantment detachment nirvana.

[@sallyarterton2702]

Try doing that if you stubb your toe on a rock!

[@paulpeterson9721]

@@sallyarterton2702 😂 First I yell..”SHIT!” Or “Damn!” Then I hobble on…..

[@paulpeterson9721]

@@arjuna190178 i could use a Zen wack ever once in a while…. It’s like stubbing you toe…

[@paulpeterson9721]

@@TheDeepening718 so true…. I have heard it said that even during the most horrific crisis, the best way to get through it is to just “Breath In and Out”

[@emilypotato9495]

I would like to understand about grieving. I recently lost my husband of 33 years and I’m not sure how to grieve. I understand that what we are as the physical body is a temporary manifestation of the one true self and that which my husband truly is is eternal but I feel so much sadness inside my body and I want to know how do I allow the grief and sadness to express itself and not drown in the sadness?

[@debbielee8728]

🌈 you accept and embrace the feelings of pain.. feel it .. allow it .. slowly the pain will go off .. than if the sadness come again ..embrace it again till grief go off

[@3rin649]

There are many other videos on this channel specific to grief :)

[@corinnecothern8086]

oh sweetheart, I just want to say I am sending you all my love... could you ask Divine Love to help you feel as if you are falling back into its arms? ( basically resting in Being or Consciousness, but I love the idea of being held in God, pure Presence) .... or as Hildegard of Bingen said, "God hugs you. You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God." I know it's not an answer to sadness; I don't believe there is an answer to sadness, except to invite it in and be as gracious with it as you are able. My wish for you ~ my prayer ~ is that you find comfort even in the presence of this great sadness. A line from the poet Rilke comes to mind: "Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final" this simple line helps me during times when I am in the company of great sadness or despair🤍

[@Zafirdot]

Also look up some Ram Dass videos on the topic. He worked with dying people a lot. Sorry for your loss 💛

[@sallyarterton2702]

So Rupert is basically saying that it’s possible to be in intense physical pain and be happy. ( or free from suffering, if that’s what he means by experiencing happiness) However if the cause of suffering is “ resistance to what is, what is here now (physical pain in the body) and there is a natural spontaneous resistance to physical pain in the body then how is it possible for one not to be suffering? The Buddhas 1st noble truth. There IS suffering.

[@ravenwild5184]

As someone who has had a chronic pain spinal injury for past 20 years I can attest to the reality that although at times my physical pain is great, in acceptance that this is my physical reality I don't mentally or emotionally suffer this pain. Yes, the Buddha declared Suffering as real but then taught ways out of suffering by recognizing our True Nature. Here, what helped was doing the Ten Fetters work in Buddhism and relaxing into not only accepting but loving whatever arises... knowing everything of our conceptual world is only temporary. As the saying goes "This too shall pass". Endless Blessings 🙏💞

[@sallyarterton2702]

@@ravenwild5184 ❤️🙏

[@uruzrune7216]

"Emotional suffering and pain are two different things." - The first time I've vehemently disagreed with Rupert's teaching and shouted at the screen. As someone that suffers (I said it) with chronic pain, I have applied much of what he teaches to help find my peace, but there are days where no degree of mindfulness will prevent the tears.

[@unaltrocanale4687]

Also if I remember correctly physical pain and emotional pain are basically the same for the brain.

[@sallyarterton2702]

❤️🙏

[@JasperAlkmaar]

That they often come together, still doesn’t prove that they are the same thing. Something can hurt physically, but not emotionally (eg; survival situations, complete surrender to death, running into burning house to get your children) all very hurtful, yet no emotional suffering involved

[@scorpionsubzero9066]

I'm sorry to hear the you suffer pain like that. I hope it can go away or diminish a little. Your scream is a reaction of your ego, that identified itself as someone that suffers pain. This ego has a history, and the pain that brings is enormous. I know because I have it too. So pay attention, the pain is there, but the person that has been having pain for a long time is a thought, a characteristic of ego, and that adds suffering.

[@ravenwild5184]

20+ years of chronic spinal pain injuries here. I wonder if you have any interest in Buddhism and the Ten Fetters? They are another way to self realization. Also, the books and videos of Michael Singer? Here in my living with intense physical pain and yes often tears, I found that by accepting these injuries and this pain as just what's arising here when I cry, I'm simply crying and releasing. If I start getting into my mind about it then I suffer. Physical pain has the ability to be a true teacher. It takes tremendous strength, courage and vulnerability to live with Chronic Pain. The first 3 years I resisted this was my life, was into victim energy and thus suffered tremendously, way more because of my mental thoughts than the actual physical sensations. It's not easy when we've been conditioned to seek pleasure and avoid aversion. Believe me I have been so averse to even the slightest pain or discomfort many of my almost 70 years. I've come to see and honor these injuries and ongoing pain as a true gift because for the first time (well second when I recall doing a natural childbirth...was no getting out of that, lol) anyway, I finally couldn't fix, numb, run, avoid or escape pain. What I found though was that everything is temporary and this too shall pass. And when I can relax into and trust that this pain isn't happening to my true self and it will pass, it helps. And simply being with the sensations without thoughts or ideas about how we should or shouldn't feel can be relieving (at least here). And, as Rupert said, we do what we can from a healing and loving space when the pain overwhelms. For me it can be a hit bath, an infrared heating pad, perhaps some pain relief medication, etc.. I send you compassion, healing, laughter and love...may you find the peace of realizing your true nature as this is never affected by our temporal world.🙏💞

[@MrTurboCat21]

Enlightenment is really just about simplifying and lightening one's life, and living life more as one equally and unconditionally. That is our true self, as opposed to our nature on Earth. As I believe that our true nature on Earth, is quite different to our true nature in heaven. They are both separate states of energy and light, and one state cannot be brought to the other. Eg. The attitudes of Earth cannot be brought to heaven. Therefore, the attitudes of heaven must also be the same, remaining to that particular state of being. Earth has been manipulated as quite a different ballgame, to create that illusion of separation. You only have to listen to ppls near death experiences. But you are right in that, we already are God the creator behind the illusion, and that nothing extraordinary can be expected. Nevertheless, because we are so ignorant and unfamiliar to our heavenly state of being on Earth, therefore it would seem as an extraordinary experience when ppl pass over. Our stillness and peacefulness on Earth, is probably as close as we can get to our true heavenly selves. But it's still not fully possible until we die to this experience completely. So therefore, we can never really know our true heavenly selves while on Earth. We can only imagine what it must be like😜. But most certainly, we are still God's energy resonating at a much lower frequency. Remember that we did originally incarnate on Earth for this very different illusory experience of duality and suffering.

[@gmlgml780]

Yeah. You can get rid of pain and suffering with a (deep enough) meditation while you're in the meditative state. Being in a (deep enough) meditative state is practically like if you were de@d. Probably (nobody knows really) deep meditation differs from de@th only in that you can come out from it. (From meditation, not from de@th.) But when you came out from it, your pain and suffering will come back. So basically you just threw out some time. Otherwise you are where you left off. And if you never come out from meditation that is basically just de@th. There's only life (which means suffering) and de@th (what nobody knows). We all are just the slaves of this universe.

[@VE2FGJ]

Could accumulated emotional pain re-surface as physical pain? Calling for attention?

[@damienalvarezdetoledo496]

For sure, but emotional pain is ultimately an expression of consciousness or "knowing". As soon as you see the "knowing" in the experience of physical pain there is no more resistance, and peace replaces your experience

[@haunteddeandollsuk]

meditation is just a temporary way to get rid of the pain you never forgot everything 😢

[@ravenwild5184]

At 68 and having had an extremely trauma filled youth I can confirm that you can release your trauma and pain, there are many modalities. You don't get rid of your pain but you can transform it, even find gifts from it. This does require being willing to choose to no longer view life as a victim and do the inner work. Then in relaxing into your true being if memories arise they no longer have the old emotional triggers. I recommended Michael Singer books and talks in understanding letting go/surrender. He has some great interviews on Sounds True here on KZbin speaking of how to do this. Blessings and Healing to you❤

[@Ghanshyampandey9828]

Sometimes it becomes hard to understand your audio , so please add written words with audio , it may help people like me 🙏

[@sallyarterton2702]

Intense physical pain, in my opinion, is the worst experience of suffering

[@paulpeterson9721]

It can be, no doubt…Yet emotional or even worse spiritual pain can linger a lifetime or more….

[@FirstPersonHood]

Suffering is defined as the psychological experience of pain.

[@ultrafeel-tv]

I agree, physical pain is the most horrible experience beings on this planet can go through - why do you think torture was invented...

[@Aed-Adlan]

Non-physical spiritual suffering makes physical suffering wanted instead.

[@freeda4100]

This guy asking questions is driving me nuts!

[@marijkevv11]

He starts with a good question.... and ends as a cookie monster.. never enough😅

[@Benny_000]

He's just trying to find his way in the complexity that the mind can bring to life :)

[@marijkevv11]

@@Benny_000 really....🙄

[@spiritlightpajic7299]

🌅my l POINT that : THERE lS VITAL POINT in This Conversation THAT IS NOT Seen 👁️ CLEARLY and Therefore Spiritual TRUTH-l lS .. STILL .. Left . OBSCURED 🙏

[@ilmarsdzenisflorida]

Is that mr Malkovich?

[@frebrea]

Enlightment is realizing what you are not. What you are cannot be gotten or be understood. Simple just be.

[@ajsalonius8455]

There is a man behind the speaker. Doing strange things to his face? Nose? What’s up?

[@TheWizardofMNT]

I have no idea what I just listened to.

[@MassiveLib]

After 30 years of zazen this question makes no sense at all

[@hansgjerstad8895]

No.

[@andreantony5017]

is rupert enlightened ?

[@paulpeterson9721]

Depends on you definition. Is he spiritually aware and knowledgeable?….then yes. Is he a Buddha?….he would never know.

[@dwarfman78]

i don't think so

[@ahmednasser9962]

@@usr909buddAh was enlightened and he didn’t keep his mouth shut. Don’t follow what ur saying

[@ahmednasser9962]

@@usr909 why would that be a weakness?

[@robinhood6954]

Nah, money's the answer!