Caledonian: “If we could learn to simply get along with any level of pain… how would it constitute an obstacle?”
It would still hurt. You’d still not want it. It just wouldn’t forcefully intrude itself on your every thought.
Compare a loud noise in your house—bubbles making the pipes howl, perhaps. You could put it off, even learn to sleep through it, but without an urgent reason you’d certainly prefer to call the plumber. If you did have an urgent reason, say you were scrimping money for something vastly more important, you would have the ability to put up with it. My suggestion would extend this sort of tuning-out to physical and emotional pain.
(Yes, I’m aware that a loud enough noise will force your attention and a trivial enough pain can be set aside, but the scales aren’t the same.)
Caledonian: “If we could learn to simply get along with any level of pain… how would it constitute an obstacle?”
It would still hurt. You’d still not want it. It just wouldn’t forcefully intrude itself on your every thought.
Compare a loud noise in your house—bubbles making the pipes howl, perhaps. You could put it off, even learn to sleep through it, but without an urgent reason you’d certainly prefer to call the plumber. If you did have an urgent reason, say you were scrimping money for something vastly more important, you would have the ability to put up with it. My suggestion would extend this sort of tuning-out to physical and emotional pain.
(Yes, I’m aware that a loud enough noise will force your attention and a trivial enough pain can be set aside, but the scales aren’t the same.)