Pain and joy bodies

Two energy fields live within us. One is a pain body, the other is a joy body. Each is an energy field of memories, affirmations, visualizations, temptations, perceptions, beliefs, wishes, decisions, and actions.

Pain body is the field of painful experiences that attracts negative thoughts, decisions, and actions. Joy body is the field of joyful experiences that attracts positive thoughts, decisions, and actions.

The good news is that we get to decide which dominates our experience.

The key to experiencing joy body is to realize that pain body will always protest with forceful attempts to convince us that without pain body, we are vulnerable to all kinds of catastrophes, that we only survive because of pain body. This is reinforced by the cultural memes about the importance and validity of suffering and sacrifice. Pain body will go to any desperate measures to sustain itself and its dominance over our experience. It is conscious of no other choice.

When we’re living in our joy body, the pleadings and temptations of our pain body makes no sense and has no influence over us. The pleasure we felt in past suffering no longer attracts us. The complaints and grievances we held onto in the past no longer control us. We instead live joy body’s vow to live in appreciation, good wishes, engagement of our strengths, gratitude, positive affirmation, and pleasureful visualizing and creating that which attracts our heart.

Our joy bodies do not grow on their own. We grow them by nourishing them with attention from ourselves and others. As they grow, our pain bodies diminish, giving their energy to our joy bodies. Everyone gains.

One Response to “Pain and joy bodies”

  1. jack/zen » Blog Archive » 2 faces of meditation
    September 19th, 2007 23:24
    1

    […] There are two totally different ways to approach meditation, through our pain body and our joy body. From pain body, we use meditation as a tool to self-improvement as a campaign against deficiencies. Or as a way of healing pain or suffering. This is all pain body activity, pain body’s relentless drive to eliminate suffering by focusing on it as much as possible. […]

Leave a Reply