On pain and other things

I had a thought a couple of weeks ago while taking Boo for his daily walk. I thought about our human tendency to avoid pain. The strange thing is, as we allow ourselves to feel and experience our own pain,a miracle occurs. Our pain softens us. It opens our hearts. Where we were once closed, we can feel empathy and connection with the suffering others are experiencing. We begin to see the interconnectedness of all things. As Jack Kornfield says, "as we allow the world to touch us deeply, we recognize that just as there is pain in our own lives, so there is pain in everyone else's life. This is the birth of wise understanding. Wise understanding sees that suffering is inevitable, that all things that are born die. Wise understanding sees and accepts life as a whole. With wise understanding we allow ourselves to contain all things, both dark and light, and we come to a sense of peace. This is not the peace of denial or running away, but the peace we find in the heart that has rejected nothing, that touches all things with compassion."
Certainly I have felt pain. Things have not always gone as I've wanted them to. I have lost loved ones. I have been sick and tired. But once I stopped fighting against the "is"ness of my life, I opened to the pain. And out of that opening came peace and wisdom. Now I consider suffering my greatest teacher. I am sure I will run away from pain again, but I am also sure it will find me and present the opportunity to soften a little more and open my heart a little wider. This is simply part of the purpose of life- to bring us to a realization of our interconnectedness. When we allow ourselves to open and feel we are suddenly connected to everyone else who has felt what we are feeling. Certainly we are not the first ones to experience pain... or anything really. This realization enhances our ability to love and appreciate not only others, but ourselves. This, in part, is why it is important to allow ourselves to feel fully and to treat ourselves with gentleness and loving kindness- for what you do unto yourself, you do unto others.