My experience after several years of daily meditation is that while I am still entirely able to feel pain and act on its message, I often “suffer” over it less. To clarify, instead of what my 4yo does when he gets a bump or scrape (fully inhabits the pain, cries it out, often displays a long-term mood drop), or how I used to handle pain (TBH, similar but less loudly and wetly), my current reaction is more like “Ouch. That sucks. Do I need to make repairs?” and move on with my life. If I’m particularly on my game that day, I might even observe the sensations as the pain evolves over time.
Most clinical definitions of pain that I’ve seen specify that it has an emotional component. Though exactly which emotion that might be is (as far as I’ve seen) always elided, I expect it’s simple aversion. Equanimity practices seem to be designed to let us choose to experience sensations with less (approaching zero) aversion or clinging emotional content. Without the aversion, it seems you simply aren’t experiencing “pain” anymore. This is also suggested when meditation teachers claim that if you can summon curiosity or interest in the painful sensation, you don’t have pain anymore. I also keep hearing that aversion and clinging are where suffering comes from in the first place, which lines up nicely with all that.
My experience after several years of daily meditation is that while I am still entirely able to feel pain and act on its message, I often “suffer” over it less. To clarify, instead of what my 4yo does when he gets a bump or scrape (fully inhabits the pain, cries it out, often displays a long-term mood drop), or how I used to handle pain (TBH, similar but less loudly and wetly), my current reaction is more like “Ouch. That sucks. Do I need to make repairs?” and move on with my life. If I’m particularly on my game that day, I might even observe the sensations as the pain evolves over time.
Most clinical definitions of pain that I’ve seen specify that it has an emotional component. Though exactly which emotion that might be is (as far as I’ve seen) always elided, I expect it’s simple aversion. Equanimity practices seem to be designed to let us choose to experience sensations with less (approaching zero) aversion or clinging emotional content. Without the aversion, it seems you simply aren’t experiencing “pain” anymore. This is also suggested when meditation teachers claim that if you can summon curiosity or interest in the painful sensation, you don’t have pain anymore. I also keep hearing that aversion and clinging are where suffering comes from in the first place, which lines up nicely with all that.