by Deborah
(Canada)
Question:
Would you say this is the/an idea or element of inner peace? Being comfortable while in discomfort?
Response:
Sure, it’s certainly part of it. I feel more inclined to say: allowing discomfort without needing to push it away or deny it. From here there is an element of peace, space or comfort in which the discomfort arises.
It depends what we mean by discomfort. If it is some physical discomfort, allowing it does not mean you do not naturally take steps to ease it, it depends on the situation. A crude example is if you were sitting a certain way and it became uncomfortable, allowing the discomfort doesn’t mean you would have to endure the sensation - you may naturally re-adjust. There may be physical pain that can not be relieved effectively, and so allowing the discomfort means that suffering diminishes.
We suffer most of the time because of our extreme aversion to discomfort. I suspect what you are speaking of is psychological or emotional discomfort. These uncomfortable feelings are always strengthened when we don’t like them, when we want them to be gone, when we feel the experience should not be this way. To allow the discomfort to be there, without demanding it be different, without judging or interpreting, without even wanting it to be different, means there is no longer so much resistive fuel perpetuating the internal discomfort. This is nothing to do with suppression or hindrance of action, it is just a withdrawal of judgements of an experience being a certain way. The experience arises by itself, so it isn’t really even “yours”.
Then we see that even “discomfort” is a mental interpretation. The experience is perceived purely, before the world of mental interpretations comes in. If anything, there is a sensation, but even the word “sensation” is another label. Obviously words can only point rather than truly describe or explain.
The final thing to say, even though you may have just been using language – is that you are not IN discomfort, if anything, discomfort is in you. The “you” that feels trapped within discomfort is an energetic idea of yourself, rather than the awareness in which all arises. Allowance and surrender help highlight this within oneself so it is experienced rather than just read about. No sensation is who you are.