Their
emotional thinking has become their self, and so they hang on to the old
emotion because it strengthens their identity . Because of the human tendency to perpetuate old emotion, almost
everyone carries in his or her ener gy filed an accumulation of old
emotional pain, which I call the pain?body . W e can, however , stop adding to the pin?body that we already have. W e
can learn to break the habit of accumulating and perpetuating old
emotion by flapping our wings, metaphorically speaking, and refrain
from mentally dwelling on the past, regardless of whether something
happened yesterday or thirty years ago. W e can learn not to keep
situations or events alive in our minds, but to return our attention
continuously to the pristine, timeless present moment rather than be
caught up in mental movie?making. Our very Presence then becomes our
identity , rather than our thoughts and emotions. Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being
present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now ,
what power does it have?A New Earth
I N D I V I D U A L  A N D  C O L L E C T I V E
Any negative emotion that is not fully faced and seen for what it is in the
moment it arises does not completely dissolve. It leaves behind a
remnant of pain. Children in particular find strong negative emotions too overwhelming to
cope with and tend to try not to feel them. In the absence of a fully
conscious adult who guides them with love and compassionate
understanding into facing the emotion directly , choosing not to feel it is
indeed the only option for the child at that time. Unfortunately , that early
defense mechanism usually remains in place when the child becomes an
adult. The emotion still lives in him or her unrecognized and manifests
indirectly , for example, as anxiety , anger , outbursts of violence, a mood,
or even as a physical illness. In some cases, it interferes with or
sabotages every intimate relationship. Most psychotherapists have met
patients who claimed initially to have had a totally happy childhood, and
later the opposite turned out to be the case. Those may be the more
extreme cases, but nobody can go through childhood without suf fering
emotional pain. Even if both of your parents were enlightened, you
would still find yourself growing up in a lar gely unconscious world. The remnants of pain left behind by every strong negative emotion that is
not fully faced, accepted, and then let go of join together to form an
ener gy filed that lives in the very cells of your body . It consists not just
of childhood pain, but also painful emotions that were added to it later in
adolescence and during your adult life, much of it created by the voice of
the ego. It is the emotional pain that is your unavoidable companion
when a false sense of self is the basis of your life. This ener gy field of old but still very?much?alive emotion that lives in
almost every human being is the pain?body . The pain?body , however , is not just individual in nature. It also partakes
of the pain suf fered by countless humans throughout the history of
humanity , which is a history of continuous tribal warfare, ofenslavement, pillage, rape, torture, and other forms of violence. This
pain still lives in the collective psyche of humanity and is being added to
on a daily basis, as you can verify when you watch the news tonight or
look at the drama in people's relationships. The collective pain?body is
probably encoded within every human's DNA, although we haven't
discovered it there yet. Every newborn who comes into this world already carries an emotional
pain?body . In some it is heavier , more dense than in others. Some babies
are quite happy most of the time. Others seem to carry an enormous
amount of unhappiness within them. It is true that some babies cry a
great deal because they are not given enough love and attention, but
others cry for no apparent reason, almost as if they were trying to make
everyone around them as unhappy as they are and often they succeed. They have come into this world with a heavy share of human pain. Other
babies may cry frequently because they can sense the emanation of their
mother's and father's negative emotion, and it causes them pain and also
causes their pain? body to grow already by absorbing ener gy from the
parents' pain?bodies. Whatever the case may be, as the baby's physical
body grows, so does the pain?body . An infant with only a light pain?body is not necessarily going to be a
spiritually more advanced man or woman than somebody with a dense
one. In fact, the opposite is often the case. People with heavy pain? bodies usually have a better chance to awaken spiritually than those with
a relatively light one. Whereas some of them do remain trapped in their
heavy pain? bodies, many others reach a point where they cannot live with their
unhappiness any longer , and so their motivation to awaken becomes
strong. Why is the suf fering body of Christ, his face distorted in agony and his
body bleeding form countless wounds, such a significant image in the
collective consciousness of humanity? Millions of people, particularly in
medieval times, would not have related to it as deeply as they did if
something within themselves had not resonated with it, if they had not
unconsciously recognized it as an outer representation of their own inner
reality the pain?body . They were not yet conscious enough to recognize
it directly within themselves, but it was the beginning of their becomingaware of it. Christ can be seen as the archetypal human, embodying both
the pain and the possibility of transcendence.A New Earth
H O W  T H E  P A I N ? B O D Y  R E N E W S  I T S E L F
The pain?body is a semi?autonomous ener gy form that lives within most
human beings, an entity made up of emotion. It has its own primitive
intelligence, not unlike a cunning animal, and its intelligence is directed
primarily at survival. Like all life?forms, it periodically needs to feed to
take in new ener gy and the food it requires to replenish itself consists of
ener gy that is compatible with its own, which is to say , ener gy that
vibrates at a similar frequency . Any emotionally painful experience can
be used as food by the pain?body . That's why it thrives on negative
thinking as well as drama in relationships. The pain?body is an addiction
to unhappiness. It may be shocking when you realize for the first time that there is
something within you that periodically seeks emotional negativity , seeks
unhappiness. Y ou need even more awareness to see it in yourself than to
recognize it in another person. Once the unhappiness has taken you over ,
not only do you not want an end to it, but you want to make others just as
miserable as you are in order to feed on their negative emotional
reactions. In most people, the pain?body has a dormant and an active stage. When
it is dormant, you easily for get that you carry a heavy dark cloud or a
dormant volcano inside you, depending on the ener gy field of your
particular pain?body . How long it remains dormant varies from person to
person: A few weeks is the most common, but it can be a few days or
months. In rare cases
the pain?body can lie in hibernation for years before it gets triggered by
some event.A New Earth
H O W  T H E  P A I N ? B O D Y  F E E D S  O N  Y O U R
T H O U G H T S
The pain?body awakens from its dormancy when it gets hungry , when it
is time to replenish itself. Alternatively , it may get triggered by an event
at any time. The pain?body that is ready to feed can use the most
insignificant event as a trigger , something somebody says or does, or
even a thought. If you live alone or there is nobody around at the time,
the pain?body will feed on your thoughts. Suddenly , your thinking
becomes deeply negative. Y ou were most likely unaware that just prior
to the influx of negative thinking a wave of emotion invaded your mind
as a dark and heavy mood, as anxiety or fiery anger . All thought is
ener gy and the pain?body is now feeding on the ener gy of your thoughts. But it cannot feed on any thought. Y ou don't need to be particularly
sensitive to notice that a positive thought has a totally dif ferent feeling? tone than a negative one. It is the same ener gy , but it vibrates at a
dif ferent frequency . A happy , positive thought is indigestible to the pain? body . It can only feed on negative thoughts because only those thoughts
are compatible with its own ener gy field. All things are vibrating ener gy fields in ceaseless motion. The chair you
sit on, the book you are holding in your hands appear solid and
motionless only because that is how your senses perceive their
vibrational frequency , that is to say , the incessant movement of the
molecules, atoms, electrons and subatomic particles that together create
what you perceive as a chair , a book, a tree, or a body . What we perceive
as physical matter is ener gy vibrating (moving) at a particular range of
frequencies. Thoughts consist of the same ener gy vibrating at a higher
frequency than matter , which is why they cannot be seen or touched. Thoughts have their own range of frequencies, which negative thoughts
at the lower end of the scale and positive thoughts at the higher . The
vibrational frequency of the pain?body resonates with that of negative
thoughts, which is why only those thoughts can feed the pain?body .The usual pattern of thought creating emotion is reversed in the case of
the pain?body , at least initially . Emotion from the pain?body quickly
gains
control of your thinking, and once your mind has been taken over by the
pain?body , your thinking becomes negative. The voice in your head will
be telling sad, anxious, or angry stories about yourself or your life, about
other people, about past, future, or imaginary events. The voice will be
blaming, accusing, complaining, imagining. And you are totally
identified with whatever the voice says, believe all its distorted thoughts. At that point, the addiction to unhappiness has set in. It is not so much that you cannot stop your train of negative thoughts, but
that you don't want to. This is because the pain?body at that time is
living through you, pretending to be you. And to the pain?body , pain is
pleasure. It eagerly devours every negative thought. In fact, the usual
voice in your head has now become the voice of the pain?body . It has
taken over the internal dialogue. A vicious circle becomes established
between the pain?body and your thinking. Every thought feeds the pain? body and in turn the pain?body generates more thoughts. At some point,
after a few hours or even a few days, it has replenished itself and returns
to its dormant stage, leaving behind a depleted or ganism and a body that
is much more susceptible to illness. If that sounds to you like a psychic
parasite, you are right. That's exactly what it is.A New Earth
H O W  T H E  P A I N ? B O D Y  F E E D S  O N  D R A M A
If there are other people around, preferably your partner or a close family
member , the pain?body will attempt to provoke them push their buttons,
as the expression goes ? so it can feed on the ensuing drama. Pain? bodies love intimate relationships and families because that is where they
get most of heir food. It is hard to resist another person's pain?body that
is determined to draw you into a reaction. Instinctively it knows your
weakest, most vulnerable points. If it doesn't succeed the first time, it
will try again and again. It is raw emotion looking for more emotion. The
other person's pain?body wants to awaken yours so that both pain?bodies
can mutually ener gize each other . Many relationships go through violent and destructive pain?body
episodes at regular intervals. It is almost unbearably painful for a young
child to have to witness the emotional violence of their parents' pain? bodies, and yet that is the fate of millions of children all over the world,
the nightmare of their daily existence. That is also one of the main ways
in
which the human pain?body is passed on from generation to generation. After each episode, the partners make up, and there is an interval of
relative peace, to the limited extent that the ego allows it. Excessive consumption of alcohol will often activate the pain?body ,
particularly in men, but also in some women. When a person becomes
drunk, he goes through a complete personality change as the pain?body
takes him over . A deeply unconscious person whose pain?body
habitually replenishes itself through physical violence often directs it
toward his spouse or children. When he becomes sober , he is truly sorry
and may say he will never do this again, and he means it. The person
who is talking and making promises, however , is not the entity that
commits the violence, and so you can be sure that it will happen again
and again unless he becomes present, recognizes the pain?body withinhimself, and thus disidentifies form it. In some cases, counseling can
help him do that. Most pain?bodies want to both inflict and suf fer pain, but some are
predominantly either perpetrators or victims. In either case, they feed on
violence, whether emotional or physical. Some couples who may think
they have fallen in love are actually feeling drawn to each other because
their respective pain?bodies complement each other . Sometimes the roles
of perpetrator and victim are already clearly prescribed the time they
meet. Some marriages that are thought to be made in heaven are actually
made in hell. If you have ever lived with a cat, you will know that even when the cat
seems to be asleep, it still knows what is going on, because at the
slightest unusual noise, its ears will move toward it, and its eyes may
open slightly . Dormant pain?bodies are the same. On some level, they
are still awake, ready to jump into action when an appropriate trigger
presents itself. In intimate relationships, pain?bodies are often clever enough to lie low
until you start living together and preferably have signed a contract
committing yourself to be with this person for the rest of your life. Y ou
don't just marry your wife or husband, you also marry her or his pain? body and your spouse marries yours. It can be quite a shock when,
perhaps not long after moving in together after the honey moon, you find
suddenly one day there is a complete personality change in your partner . Her voice becomes harsh or shrill as she accuses you, blames you, or
shouts at you, mostly likely
over a relatively trivial matter . Or she becomes totally withdrawn. What's
wrong? you ask. Nothing is wrong, she says. But the intensely hostile
ener gy she emanates is saying, Everything is wrong. When you look into
her eyes, there is no light in them anymore; it is as if a heavy veil has
descended, and the being you know and love which before was able to
shine through her ego, is now totally obscured. A compete stranger
seems to be looking back at you, and in her eyes there is hatred, hostility ,
bitterness, or anger . When she speaks to you, it is not your spouse or
partner who is speaking but the pain?body speaking through them. Whatever she is saying is the pain?body's version of reality , a realitycompletely distorted by fear , hostility , anger , and a desire to inflict and
receive more pain. At this point you may wonder whether this is your partner's real face that
you had never seen before and whether you made a dreadful mistake in
choosing this person. It is, of course, not the real face, just the pain?body
that temporarily has taken possession. It would be hard to find a partner
who doesn't carry a pain?body; but it would perhaps be wise to choose
someone whose pain?body is not excessively dense.A New Earth
D E N S E  P A I N ? B O D I E S
Some people carry dense pain?bodies that are never completely dormant. They may be smiling and making polite conversation, but you do not
need to be psychic to sense that seething ball of unhappy emotion in
them just underneath the surface, waiting for the next event to react to,
the next person to blame or confront, the next thing to be unhappy
about.. Their pain?bodies can never get enough, are always hungry . They
magnify the ego's need for enemies. Through their reactivity , relatively insignificant matters are blown up out
of all proportion as they try to pull other people into their drama by
getting them to react. Some get involved in protracted and ultimately
pointless battles or court cases with or ganizations or individuals. Others
are consumed by obsessive hatred toward an ex?spouse or partner . Unaware of the pain they carry inside, by their reaction, they project the
pain into events and situations. Due to a complete lack of self? awareness, they cannot tell the dif ference between an event and their
reaction to the event. T o them, the unhappiness and even the pain itself is
out there in the event or situation. Being unconscious of their inner state, they don't even know that they are
deeply unhappy , that they are suf fering. Sometimes people with such dense pain?bodies become activists fighting
for a cause. The cause may indeed be worthy , and they are sometimes
successful at first in getting things done; however the negative ener gy
that flows into what they say and do and their unconscious need for
enemies and conflict tend to generate increasing opposition to their
cause. Usually they also end up creating enemies within their own
or ganization, because wherever they go, they find reasons for feeling
bad, and so their pain?body continues to find exactly what it is looking
for .A New Earth
E N T E R T A I N M E N T ,  T H E  M E D I A ,  A N D  T H E
P A I N ? B O D Y
If you were not familiar with our contemporary civilization, if you had
come here from another age or another planet, one of the things that
would amaze you is that millions of people love and pay money to watch
humans kill and inflict pain on each other and call it entertainment. Why do violent films attract such lar ge audiences? There is an entire
industry , a lar ge part of which fuels the human addiction to unhappiness. People obviously watch those films because they want to feel bad. What
is it in humans that loves to feel bad and calls it good? The pain?body , of
course. A lar ge part of the entertainment industry caters to it. So, in
addition to reactivity , negative thinking, and personal drama, the pain? body also renews itself vicariously through the cinema and television
screen. Pain?bodies write and produce these films, and pain?bodies pay
to watch them. Is it always wrong to show and watch violence on television and the
cinema screen? Does all such violence cater to the pain?body? At the
current evolutionary stage of humanity , violence is still not only all? pervasive but even on the increase, as the old egoic consciousness,
amplified by the collective pain?body , intensifies prior to its inevitable
demise. If films show violence in its wider context, if they show its
origin and its consequences, show what it does to the victim as well as
the perpetrator , show the collective unconsciousness that lies behind it
and is passed on from generation to generation (the anger and hatred that
lives in humans as the pain?body), then those films can fulfill a vital
function in the awakening of humanity . They can act as a mirror in which
humanity sees its own insanity . That in you
which recognizes madness as madness (even if it is your own) is sanity ,
is the arising awareness, is the end of insanity .Such films do exist and they do not fuel the pain?body . Some of the best
antiwar films are films that show the reality of war rather than a
glamorized version of it. The pain?body can only feed on films in which
violence is portrayed as normal or even desirable human behavior , or
that glorify violence with the sole purpose of generating negative
emotion in the viewer and so become a fix for the pain?addicted pain? body . The popular tabloid press does not primarily sell news but negative
emotion food for the pain?body . Outrage screams the three?inch
headline, or Bastards. The British tabloid press excels at this. They know
that negative emotion sells far more papers than news does. There is a tendency in the news media in general, including television, to
thrive on negative news. The worse things get, the more excited the
presenters become, and often the negative excitement is generated by the
media itself. Pain?bodies just love it.A New Earth
T H E  C O L L E C T I V E  F E M A L E  P A I N ? B O D Y
The collective dimension of the pain?body has dif ferent strands in it. T ribes, nations, races, all have their own collective painbody , some
heavier than others, and most members of that tribe, nation or race have
a share in it to a greater or lesser degree. Almost every woman has her share in the collective female pain?body ,
which tends to become activated particularly just prior to the time of
menstruation. At that time many women become overwhelmed by
intense negative emotion. The suppression of the feminine principle especially over the past two
thousand years has enabled the ego to gain absolute supremacy in the
collective human psyche. Although women have egos, of course, the ego
can take root and grow more easily in the male form than in the female. this is because women are less mind?identified than men. They are more
in touch with the inner body and the intelligence of the or ganism where
the intuitive faculties originate. The female form is less rigidly
encapsulated than the
male, has greater openness and sensitivity toward other life?forms, and is
more attuned to the natural world. If the balance between male and female ener gies had not been destroyed
on our plant, the ego's growth would have been greatly curtailed. W e
would not have declared war on nature, and we would not be so
completely alienated from our Being. Nobody knows the exact figure because records were not kept, but it sees
certain that during a three?hundred?year period between three and five
million women were tortured and killed by the Holy Inquisition, an
institution founded by the Roman Catholic Church to suppress heresy . This sure ranks together with the Holocaust as one of the darkest
chapters in human history . It was enough for a woman to show a love for
animals, walk alone in the fields or woods, or gather medicinal plants tobe branded a witch, then tortured and burned at the stake. The sacred
feminine was declared demonic, and an entire dimension lar gely
disappeared form human experience. Other cultures and religions, such
as Judaism, Islam, and even Buddhism, also suppressed the female
dimension, although in a less violent way . W omen's status was reduced
to being child bearers and men's property . Males who denied the
feminine even within themselves where now running the world, a world
that was totally out of balance. The rest is history or rather a case history
of insanity . Who was responsible for this fear of the feminine that could only be
described as acute collective paranoia? W e could say: Of course, men
were responsible. But then why in many ancient pre?Christian
civilizations such as the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Celtic were women
respected and the feminine principle not feared but revered? What is it
that suddenly made men feel threatened by the female? The evolving ego
in them. It knew it could gain full control of our planet only through the
male form, and to do so, it had to render the female powerless. In time, the ego also took over most women, although it could never
become as deeply entrenched in them as in men. W e now have a situation in which the suppression of the feminine has
become internalized, even in most women. The sacred feminine, because
it is suppressed, is felt by many women as emotional pain. In fact, it has
become
part of their pain?body , together with the accumulated pain suf fered by
women over millennia through childbirth, rape, slavery , torture and
violent death. But things are changing rapidly now . W ith many people becoming more
conscious, the ego is losing its hold on the human mind. Because the ego
was never as deeply rooted in woman, it is losing its hold on women
more quickly than on men.A New Earth
N A T I O N A L  A N D  R A C I A L  P A I N ? B O D I E S
Certain countries in which many acts of collective violence were
suf fered or perpetrated have a heavier collective pain?body than others. This is why older nations tend to have stronger pain?bodies. It is also
why younger countries, such as Canada or Australia, and those that have
remained more sheltered from the surrounding madness, such as
Switzerland, tend to have lighter collective pain?bodies. Of course, in
those countries, people still have their personal pain?body to deal with. If
you are sensitive enough, you can feel a heaviness in the ener gy field of
certain countries as soon as you step of f the plane. In other countries, one
can sense an ener gy field of latent violence just underneath the surface of
everyday life. In some nations, for example, in the Middle East, the
collective pain?body is so acute that a significant part of the population
finds itself forced to act it out in an endless and insane cycle of
perpetration and retribution through which the pain?body renews itself
continuously . In countries where the pain?body is heavy but no longer acute, there has
been a tendency for people to try and desensitize themselves to the
collective emotional pain: in Germany and Japan through work, in some
other countries through widespread indulgence in alcohol (which,
however , can also have the opposite ef fect of stimulating the pain?body ,
particularly if consumed in excess). China's heavy pain?body is to some
extent mitigated by the widespread practice of t'ai chi, which amazingly
was not declared illegal by the Communist government that otherwise
feels threatened by anything it cannot control. Every day in the streets
and city parks, millions practice this movement meditation that stills the
mind. This makes a considerable dif ference to the collective ener gy field
and goes some way toward diminishing the pain?body by reducing
thinking and generating Presence. Spiritual practices that involve the physical body , such as tai chi, qigong,
and yoga, are also increasingly being embraced in the W estern world. These practices do not create a separation between body and spirit andare helpful in weakening the pain?body . They will play an important role
in the global awakening. The collective racial pain?body is pronounced in Jewish people, who
have suf fered persecution over many centuries. Not surprisingly , it is
strong as well in Native Americans, whose numbers were decimated and
whose culture all but destroyed by the European settlers. In Black
Americans too the collective pain?body is pronounced. Their ancestors
were violently uprooted, beaten into submission, and sold into slavery . The foundation of American economic prosperity rested on the labor of
four to five million black slaves. In fact, the suf fering inflicted on Native
and Black Americans has not remained confined to those two races, but
has become part of the collective American pain?body . It is always the
case that both victim and perpetrator suf fer the consequences of any acts
of violence, oppression, or brutality . For what you do to others, you do to
yourself. It doesn't really matter what proportion of your pain?body belongs to
your nation or race and what proportion is personal. In either case, you
can only go beyond it by taking responsibility for you inner state now . Even if blame seems more than justified, as long as you blame others,
you keep feeding the pain?body with your thoughts and remain trapped
in your ego. There is only one perpetrator of evil on the planet: human
unconsciousness. That realization is true for giveness. W ith for giveness,
your victim identity dissolves, and your true power emer ges the power of
Presence. Instead of blaming the darkness, you bring in the light.C H A P T E R  S I X  B R E A K I N G  F R E E
The beginning of freedom from the pain?body lies first of all in the
realization that you have a pain?body . Then, more important, in your
ability to stay present enough, alert enough, to notice the pan?body in
yourself as a heavy influx of negative emotion when it becomes active. When it is recognized, it can no longer pretend to be you and live and
renew itself through you. It is your conscious Presence that breaks the identification with the pain? body . When you don't identify with it, the pain?body can no longer
control your thinking and so cannot renew itself anymore by feeding on
your thoughts. The pain?body in most cases does not dissolve
immediately , but once you have severed the link between it and your
thinking, the pain?body begins to lose ener gy . Y our thinking ceases to be
clouded by emotion; your present perceptions are no longer distorted by
the past. The ener gy that was trapped in the pain?body then changes into
vibrational frequency and is transmuted into Presence. In this way , the
pain?body becomes fuel for consciousness. This is why many of the
wisest, most enlightened men and women on our planet once had a
heavy pain?body . Regardless of what you say or do or what face you show to the world,
your mental?emotional state cannot be concealed. Every human being
emanates an ener gy field that corresponds to his or her inner state, and
most people can sense it, although they may feel someone else's ener gy
emanation only subliminally . That is to say , they don't know that they
sense it, yet it determines to a lar ge extent how they feel about and react
to that person. Some people are most clearly aware of it when they first
meet someone, even before any words are exchanged. A little later ,
however , words take over the relationship and with words come the roles
that most people play . Attention then moves to the realm of mind, and
the ability to sense the other person's ener gy field becomes greatly
diminished. Nevertheless, it is still felt on an unconscious level. When you realize that pain?bodies unconsciously seek more pain, that is
to say that they want something bad to happen, you will understand that
many traf fic accidents are caused by drivers whose pain?bodies are
active atthe time. When two drivers with active pain?bodies arrive at an
intersection at the same time, the likelihood of an accident is many times
greater than under normal circumstances. Unconsciously they both want
the accident to happen. The role of pain?bodies in traf fic accidents is
most obvious in the phenomenon called road rage, when drivers become
physically violent often over a trivial matter such as someone in front of
them driving too slowly . Man acts of violence are committed by normal people who temporarily
turn into maniacs. All over the world at court proceedings you hear the
defense lawyers say , This is totally out of character , and the accused, I
don't know what came over me. T o my knowledge so far , no defense
lawyer has said to the judge although the day may not be far of f ? This is
a case of diminished responsibility . My client's pain?body was activated,
and he did not know what he was doing. In fact, he didn't do it. His pain? body did. Does this mean that people are not responsible for what they do when
possessed by the pain?body? My answer is: How can they be? How can
you be responsible when you are unconscious, when you don't know
what you are doing? However , in the greater scheme of things, human
beings are meant to evolve into conscious beings, and those who don't
will suf fer the consequences of their unconsciousness. They are out of
alignment with the evolutionary impulse of the universe. And even that is only relatively true. From a higher perspective, it is not
possible to be out of alignment with the evolution of the universe, and
even human unconsciousness and the suf fering it generates is part of that
evolution. When you can't stand the endless cycle of suf fering anymore,
you being to awaken. So the pain?body too has its necessary place in the
lar ger picture.A New Earth
P R E S E N C E
A woman in her thirties came to see me. As she greeted me, I could
sense the pain behind her polite and superficial smile. She started telling
me her story , and within one second her smile changed into a grimace of
pain. Then, she began to sob uncontrollably . She said she felt lonely and
unfulfilled. There was much anger and sadness. As a child she had been
abused by a
physically violent father . I saw quickly that her pain was not caused by
her present life circumstances but by an extraordinarily heavy pain?body . Her pain?body had become the filter through which she viewed her life
situation. She was not yet able to see the link between the emotional pain
and her thoughts, being completely identified with both. She could not
yet see that she was feeding the pain?body with her thoughts. In other
words, she lived with the burden of a deeply unhappy self. At some
level, however , she must have realized that her pain originated within
herself, that she was a burden to herself. She was ready to awaken, and
this is why she had come. I directed the focus of her attention to what she was feeling inside her
body and asked her to sense the emotion directly , instead of through the
filter of her unhappy thoughts, her unhappy story . She said she had come
expecting me to show her the way out of her unhappiness, not into it. Reluctantly , however , she did what I asked her to do. T ears were rolling
down her face, her whole body was shaking. At this moment, this is what
you feel. I said. There is nothing you can do about the fact that at this
moment this is what you feel. Now , instead of wanting this moment to be
dif ferent from the way it is, which adds more pain to the pain that is
already there, is it possible for you to completely accept that this is what
you feel right now? She was quiet for a moment. Suddenly she looked impatient, as if she
was about to get up, and said angrily , No, I don't want to accept this. Who is speaking? I asked her . Y ou or the unhappiness in you? Can yousee that your unhappiness about being unhappy is just another layer of
unhappiness? She became quiet again. I am not asking you to do
anything. All I'm asking is that you find out whether it is possible for you
to allow those feelings to be there. In other words, and this may sound
strange, if you don't mind being unhappy , what happens to the
unhappiness? Don't you want to find out? She looked puzzled briefly , and after a minute or so of sitting silently , I
suddenly noticed a significant shift in her ener gy field. She said, This is
weird. I 'm still unhappy , but now there is space around it. It seems to
matter less. This was the first time I heard somebody put it like that:
There is space around my unhappiness. That space, of course, comes
when there is inner acceptance of whatever you are experiencing in the
present moment. I didn't say much else, allowing her to be with the experience. Later she
came to understand that the moment she stopped identifying with the
feeling, the old painful emotion that lived in her , the moment she put her
attention on it directly without trying to resist it, it could no longer
control her thinking and so become mixed up with a mentally
constructed story called The Unhappy Me. Another dimension had come
into her life that transcended her personal past the dimension of
Presence. Since you cannot be unhappy without an unhappy story , this
was the end of her unhappiness. It was also the beginning of the end of
her pain?body . Emotion in itself is not unhappiness. Only emotion plus
an unhappy story is unhappiness. When our session came to an end, it was fulfilling to know that I had just
witnessed the arising of Presence in another human being. The very
reason for our existence in human form is to bring that dimension of
consciousness into this world. I had also witnessed a diminishment of the
pain?body , not through fighting it but through bringing th light of
consciousness to it. A few minutes after my visitor left, a friend arrived to drop something
of f. As soon as she came into the room she said, What happened here? The ener gy feels heavy and murky . It almost makes me feel sick. Y ou
need to open the windows, burn some incense. I explained that I had just
witnessed a major release in someone with a very dense pain?body and
that what she felt must be some of the ener gy that was released duringour session. My friend, however , didn't want to stay and listen. She
wanted to get away as soon as possible. I opened the windows and went out to have dinner at a small Indian
restaurant nearby . What happened there was a clear , further confirmation
of what I already know: That on some level, all seemingly individual
human pan?bodies are connected. Although the form this particular
confirmation took did come as a shock.A New Earth
T H E  R E T U R N  O F  T H E  P A I N ? B O D Y
I sat down at a table and ordered a meal. There were a few other guests. At a nearby table, there was a middle?aged man in a wheelchair who was
just finishing his meal. He glanced at me once, briefly but intensely . A
few minutes passed. Suddenly he became restless, agitated, his body
began
twitching. The waiter came to take his plate. The man started ar guing
with him. The food was no good. It was dreadful. Then why did you eat
it? asked the waiter . And that really set him of f. He started shouting,
became abusive. V ile words were coming out of his mouth; intense,
violent hatred filled the room. One could feel that ener gy entering the
cells of one's body looking for something to latch on to. Now he was
shouting at the other guests too, but for some strange reason ignoring me
completely as I sat in intense Presence. I suspected that the universal
human pain?body had come back to tell me, Y ou thought you defeated
me. Look, I'm still here. I also considered the possibility that the released
ener gy field left behind after our session followed me to the restaurant
and attached itself to the one person in whom it found a compatible
vibrational frequency , that is to say , a heavy pain?body . The manager opened the door , Just leave. Just leave. The man zoomed
out in his electric wheelchair , leaving everyone stunned. One minute
later he returned. His pain?body wasn't finished yet. It needed more. He
pushed open the door with his wheelchair , shouting obscenities. A
waitress tried to stop him from coming in. He put his chair in fast? forward and pinned her against the wall. Other guests jumped up and
tried to pull him away . Shouting, screaming, pandemonium. A little later
a policeman arrived, the man became quiet, was asked to leave and not
return. The waitress fortunately was not hurt, except for bruises on her
legs. When it was all over , the manager came to my table and asked me,
half joking but perhaps feeling intuitively that there was some
connection, Did you cause all this?A New Earth
T H E  P A I N ? B O D Y  I N  C H I L D R E N
Children's pain?bodies sometimes manifest as moodiness or withdrawal. The child becomes sullen, refuses to interact, and may sit in a corner ,
hugging a doll or sucking a thumb. They can also manifest as weeping
fits or temper tantrums. The child screams, may throw him or herself on
the floor , or become destructive. Thwarted wanting can easily trigger the
pain?body , and in a developing ego, the force of wanting can be intense. Parents may watch helplessly in incomprehension and disbelief as their
little angel becomes transformed within a few seconds into a little
monster . Where does all that unhappiness come from? they wonder . T o a
greater or lesser extent, it is the child's share of the collective pain?body
of humanity which goes back to the very origin of the human ego. But the child may also already have taken on pain from his or her
parents' pain?bodies, and so the parents may see in the child a reflection
of what is also in them. Highly sensitive children are particularly
af fected by their parents' pain?bodies. Having to witness their parents'
insane drama causes almost unbearable emotional pain, and so it is often
these sensitive children who grow into adults with heavy pain?bodies. Children are not fooled by parents who try to hide their pain?body from
them, who say to each other , W e mustn't fight in front of the children. This usually means while the parents make polite conversation, the home
is pervaded with negative ener gy . Suppressed pain?bodies are extremely
toxic, even more so than openly active ones, and that psychic toxicity is
absorbed by the children and contributes to the development of their own
pain?body . Some children learn subliminally about ego and pain?body simply by
living with very unconscious parents. A woman whose parents both had
strong egos and heavy pain?bodies told me that often when her parents
were shouting and screaming at each other , she would look at them and
although she loved them, would say to herself, These people are nuts. How did I ever end up here? There was already an awareness in her ofthe insanity of living in such a way . That awareness helped reduce the
amount of pain she absorbed from her parents. Parents often wonder who to deal with their child's pain?body . The
primary question is, of course, are they dealing with their own? Do they
recognize it within themselves? Are they able to stay present enough
when it becomes activated so that they can be aware of the emotion on
the feeling level before it gets a chance to turn into thinking and thus into
an unhappy person? While the child is having a pain?body attack, there isn't much you can do
except to stay present so that you are not drawn into an emotional
reaction. The child's pain?body would only feed on it. Pain?bodies can
be extremely dramatic. Don't buy into the drama. Don't take it too
seriously . If the pain?body was triggered by thwarted wanting, don't give
in now to its demands. Otherwise, the child will learn: The more
unhappy I become, the more likely I am to get what I want. This is a
recipe for dysfunction in later life. The pain?body will be frustrated by
your nonreaction and may briefly act up even more before it subsides. Fortunately , pain?body episodes in children are usually more short?lived
than in adults. A little while after it has subsided, or perhaps the next day , you can talk
to the child about what happened. But don't tell the child about what
happened. Ask questions instead. For example: What was it that came
over you yesterday when you wouldn't stop screaming? Do you
remember? What did it feel like? W as it a good feeling? That thing that
came over you, does it have a name? No? If it had a name, what would it
be called? If you could see it, what would it look like? Can you paint a
picture of what it would look like? What happened to it when it went
away? Did it go to sleep? Do you think it may come back? These are just a few suggested questions. All these questions are
designed to awaken the witnessing faculty in the child, which is
Presence. They will help the child to disidentify from the pain?body . Y ou
may also want to talk to the child about your own pain?body using the
child's terminology . The next time the child gets taken over by the pain? body , you can say , It's come back, hasn't it? Use whatever words the
child used when you talk bout it. Direct the child's attention to what itfeels like. Let your attitude be one of interest or curiosity rather than one
of criticism or condemnation. It is unlikely that this will stop the pain?body in its tracks, and it may
appear that the child will not even be hearing you, yet some awareness
will remain in the background of the child's consciousness even while
the pain? body is active. After a few times, the awareness will have
gown stronger and the pain?body will have weakened. The child is
growing in Presence. One day you may find that the child is the one to
point out to you that your own pain?body has taken control of you.A New Earth
U N H A P P I N E S S
Not all unhappiness is of the pain?body . Some of it is new unhappiness,
created whenever you are out of alignment with the present moment,
when the Now is denied in one way or another . When you recognize that
the present moment is always already the case and therefore inevitable,
you can bring an uncompromising inner yes to it and so not only create
no further unhappiness, but, with inner resistance gone, find yourself
empowered by Life itself. The pain?body's unhappiness is always clearly out of proportion to the
apparent cause. In other words, it is an overreaction. This is how it is
recognized, although not usually by the suf ferer , the person possessed. Someone with a heavy pain?body easily finds reasons for being upset,
angry , hurt, sad, or fearful. Relatively insignificant things that someone
else would shrug of f with a smile or not even notice become the apparent
cause of intense unhappiness. They are, of course, not the true cause but
only act as a trigger . They bring back to life the old accumulated
emotion. The emotion then moves into the head and amplifies and
ener gizes the egoic mind structures. Pain?body and ego are close relatives. They need each other . The
triggering event or situation is then interpreted and reacted to through the
screen of a heavily emotional ego. This is to say , its significance
becomes completely distorted. you look at the present through the eyes
of the emotional past within you. In other words, what you see and
experience is not in the event or situation but in you. Or in some cases, it
may be there in the event or situation, but you amplify it through your
reaction. This reaction, this amplification, is what the pain?body wants
and needs, what it feeds on. For someone possessed by a heavy pain?body , it is often impossible to
step outside his or her distorted interpretation, the heavily emotional
story . The more negative emotion there is in a story , the heavier and
more impenetrable it becomes. And so the story is not recognized assuch but is taken to be reality . When you are completely trapped in the
movement of thought and the accompanying emotion, stepping outside is
not possible because you don't even know that there is an outside. Y ou
are trapped in your own movie or dream, trapped in your own hell. T o
you it is reality and no other reality is possible. And as far as you are
concerned, your reaction is the only possible reaction.A New Earth
B R E A K I N G  I D E N T I F I C A T I O N  W I T H  T H E
P A I N ? B O D Y
A person with a strong, active pain?body has a particular ener gy
emanation that other people perceive as extremely unpleasant. When
they meet a person, some people will immediately want to remove
themselves or reduce interaction with him or her to a minimum. They
feel repulsed by the person's ener gy field. Others will feel a wave of
aggression toward this
person, and they will be rude or attack him or her verbally and in some
cases, even physically . This means there is something within them that
resonates with the other person's pain?body . What they react to so
strongly is also in them. It is their own pain?body . Not surprisingly , people with heavy and frequently active pain?bodies
often find themselves in conflict situations. Sometimes, of course they
actively provoke them. But at other times, they may not actually do
anything. The negativity they emanate is enough to attract hostility and
generate conflict. It requires a high degree of Presence to avoid reacting
when confronted by someone with such an active pain?body . If you are
able to stay present, it sometimes happens that your Presence enables the
other person to disidentify from his or her own pain?body ad thus
experience the miracle of a sudden awakening. Although the awakening
may be short?lived, the awakening process will have become initiated. One of the first such awakenings that I witnessed happened many years
ago. My doorbell rang close to eleven o'clock at night. My neighbor
Ethel's anxiety?laden voice came through the intercom. W e need to talk. This is very important. Please let me in. Ethel was middle?aged,
intelligent, and highly educated. She also had a strong ego and a heavy
pain?body . She escaped form Nazi Germany when she was an
adolescent, and many of her family members perished in the
concentration camps.Ethel sat down on my sofa, agitated, her hands trembling. She took
letters and documents out of the file she carried with her and spread them
out all over the sofa and floor . At once I had the strange sensation as if a
dimmer switch had turned the inside of my entire body to maximum
power . There was nothing to do other than remain open, alert, intensely
present present with every cell of the body . I looked at her with no
thought and no judgment and listened in stillness without any mental
commentary . A torrent of words came out of her mouth. They sent me
another disturbing letter today . They are conducting a vendetta against
me. Y ou must help. W e need to fight them together . Their crooked
lawyers will stop at nothing. I will lose my home. They are threatening
me with dispossession. It transpired that she refused to pay the service char ge because the
property managers had filed to carry out some repairs. They in turn
threatened to take her to court. She talked for ten minutes or so. I sat, looked, and listened. Suddenly she
stopped talking, looked at the papers all around her as if she had just
woken up from a dream. She became calm and gentle. Her entire ener gy
filed changed. Then she looked at me and said, This isn't important at all,
is it? No, it isn't, I said. She sat quietly for a couple more minutes, then
picked up her papers and left. The next morning she stopped me in the
street, looking at me somewhat suspiciously . What did you do to me? Last night was the first night in years that I slept well. In fact, I slept like
a baby . She believed I had done something to her , but I had done nothing. Instead of asking what I had done to her , perhaps she should have asked
what I had not done. I had to reacted, not confirmed the reality of her
story , not fed her mind with more thought and her pain?body with more
emotion. I had allowed her to experience whatever she was experiencing
at that moment, and the power of allowing lies in non?interference, non? doing. Being present is always infinitely more powerful than anything
one could say or do, although sometimes being present can give rise to
words or actions. What happened to her was not yet a permanent shift, but a glimpse of
what is possible, a glimpse of what was already within her . In Zen, such
a glimpse is called satori. Satori is a moment of Presence, a briefstepping out of the voice in your head, the thought processes, and their
reflection in the body as emotion. It is the arising of inner spaciousness
where before there was the clutter of thought and the turmoil of emotion. The thinking mind cannot understand Presence and so will often
misinterpret it. It will say that you are uncaring, distant, have no
compassion, are not relating. The truth is, you are relating but at a level
deeper than thought and emotion. In fact, at that level there is a true
coming together , a true joining that goes far beyond relating. In the
stillness of Presence, you can sense the formless essence in yourself and
in the other as one. Knowing the oneness of yourself and the other is true
love, true care, true compassion.A New Earth
T R I G G E R S
Some pain?bodies react to only one particular kind of trigger or situation,
which is usually one that resonates with a certain kind of emotional pain
suf fered in the past. For example, if a child grows up with parents for
whom financial issues are the source of frequent drama and
conflict, he or she may absorb the parents' fear around money and
develop a pain?body that is triggered whenever financial issues are
involved. The child a adult gets upset or angry even over insignificant
amounts of money . Behind the upset or anger lies issues of survival and
intense fear . I have seen spiritual, that is to say , relatively conscious,
people who started to shout, blame, and make accusations the moment
they picked up the phone to talk to their stockbroker or realtor . Just as
there is a health warning on every package of cigarettes, perhaps there
should be similar warnings on every banknote and bank statement:
Money can activate the pain?body and cause complete unconsciousness. Someone who in childhood was neglected or abandoned by one or both
parents will likely develop a pain?body that becomes triggered in any
situation that resonates even remotely with their primordial pain of
abandonment. A friend arriving a few minutes late to pick them up at the
airport or a spouse coming home late can trigger a major pain?body
attack. If their partner or spouse leaves them or dies, the emotional pain
they experience goes far beyond the pain that is natural in such a
situation. It may be intense anguish, long?lasting, incapacitating
depression, or obsessive anger . A woman who in childhood was physically abused by her father my find
that her pain?body becomes easily activated in any close relationship
with a man. Alternatively , the emotion that makes up her pain?body may
draw her to a man whose pain?body is similar to that of her father . Her
pain? body may feel a magnetic pull to someone who it senses will give
it more of the same pain. That pain is sometimes misinterpreted as
falling in love.A man who had been an unwanted child and was given no love and a
minimum of care and attention by his mother developed a heavy
ambivalent pain?body that consisted of unfulfilled intense longing for his
mother's love and attention and at the same time intense hatred toward
her for withholding what he so desperately needed. When he became an
adult, almost every woman would trigger his pain?body's neediness a
form of emotional pain and this would manifest as an addictive
compulsion to conquer and seduce almost every woman he met and in
this way get the female love and attention that the pain?body craved. He
became quite an expert on seduction, but as soon as a relationship turned
intimate or his advances were rejected, the
pain?body's anger toward his mother would come up and sabotage the
relationship. When you recognize your own pain?body as it arises, you will also
quickly learn what the most common triggers are that activate it, whether
it be situations or certain things other people do or say . When those
triggers occur , you will immediately see them for what they are and enter
a heightened state of alertness. W ithin a second or two, you will also
notice the emotional reaction that is the arising pain?body , but in that
state of alert Presence, you won't identify with it, which means the pain? body cannot take you over and become the voice in your head. If you are
with your partner at the time, you may tell him or her: What you just said
(or did) triggered my pain?body . Have an agreement with your partner
that whenever either of you says or does something that triggers the other
person's pain?body , you will immediately mention it. In this way , the
pain?body can no longer renew itself through drama in the relationship
and instead of pulling you into unconsciousness, will help you become
fully present. Every time you are present when the pain?body arises, some of the pain? body's negative emotional ener gy will burn up, as it were, and become
transmuted into Presence. The rest of the pain?body will quickly
withdraw and wait for a better opportunity to rise again, that is to say ,
when you are less conscious. A better opportunity for the pain?body to
arise may come whenever you lose Presence, perhaps after you have had
a few drinks or while watching a violent film. The tiniest negative
motion, such as being irritated or anxious, can also serve as a doorwaythrough which the pain? body can return. The pain?body needs your
unconsciousness. It cannot tolerate the light of Presence.A New Earth
T H E  P A I N ? B O D Y  A S  A N  A W A K E N E R
At first sight, it may seem that the pain?body is the greatest obstacle to
the arising of a new consciousness in humanity . It occupies your mind,
controls and distorts your thinking, disrupts you relationships, and feels
like a dark cloud that occupies your entire ener gy field. It tends to make
you unconscious, spiritually speaking, which means totally identified
with mind and emotion. It makes you reactive, makes you say and do
things that are designed to increase the unhappiness within yourself and
the world. As unhappiness increases, however , it also causes increasing disruption
in your life. Perhaps the body can't take the stress anymore and develops
an illness or some dysfunction. Perhaps you have become involved in an
accident, some huge conflict situation or drama that was caused by the
pain?body's desire for something bad to happen, or you become the
perpetrator of physical violence. Or it all becomes too much and you
cannot live with your unhappy self anymore. The pain?body , of course,
is part of that false self. Whenever you get taken over by the pain?body , whenever you don't
recognize it or what it is, it becomes part of your ego. Whatever you
identify with turns into ego. The pain?body is one of the most powerful
things the ego can identify with, just as the pain?body needs the ego to
renew itself through it. That unholy alliance, however , eventually breaks
down in those cases where the pain?body is so heavy that the egoic mind
structures, instead of being strengthened by it, are becoming eroded by
the continuous onslaught of the pain?body's ener gy char ge, in the same
way that an electronic device can be empowered by an electric current
but also destroyed by it if the voltage is too high. People with strong pain?bodies often reach a point where they feel their
life is becoming unbearable, where they can't take any more pain, any
more drama. One person expressed this by saying plainly and simply that
she was Fed up with being unhappy . Some people may feel, as I did, thatthey cannot live with themselves anymore. Inner peace then becomes
their first priority . Their acute emotional pain forces them to disidentify
from the content of their minds and the mental?emotional structures that
give birth to and perpetuate the unhappy me. They then know that
neither their unhappy story nor the emotion they feel is who they are. They realize they are the knowing, not the known. Rather than pulling
them into unconsciousness, the pain?body becomes their awakener , the
decisive factor that forces them into a state of Presence. However , due to the unprecedented influx of consciousness we are
witnessing on the planet now , many people no longer need to go through
the depth of acute suf fering to be able to disidentify from the pain?body . Whenever they notice they have slipped back into a dysfunctional state,
they are able to choose to step out of identification with thinking and
emotion and
enter the state of Presence. They relinquish resistance, become still and
alert, one with what is, within and without. The next step in human evolution is not inevitable, but for the first time
in the history of our planet, it can be a conscious choice. Who is making
that choice? Y ou are. And who are you? Consciousness that has become
conscious of itself.A New Earth
B R E A K I N G  F R E E  O F  T H E  P A I N ? B O D Y
A question people frequently ask is, How long does it take to become
free of the pain?body? The answer is, of course, that it depends both on
the density of an individual's pain?body as well as the degree or intensity
of that individual's arising Presence. But it is not the pain?body , but
identification with it that causes the suf fering that you inflict on yourself
and others. It is not the pain?body but identification with the pain?body
that forces you to relive the past again and again and keeps you in a state
of unconsciousness. So a more important question to ask would be this:
How long does it take to become free of identification with the pain? body? And the answer to that question: It takes no time at all. When the pain? body is activated, know that what you are feeling is th pain?body in you. This knowing is all that is needed to break your identification with it. And when identification with it ceases, the transmutation begins. The
knowing prevents the old emotion from rising up in your head and taking
over not only the internal dialogue, but also your actions as well as
interactions with other people. This mean the pain?body cannot use you
anymore and renew itself through you. The old emotion may then still
live in you for a while and come up periodically . It may also still
occasionally trick you into identifying with it again and thus obscure the
knowing, but not for long. Not projecting the old emotion into situations
means facing it directly within yourself. It may not be pleasant, but it
won't kill you. Y our Presence is more than capable of containing it. The
emotion is not who you are. When you feel the pain?body , don't fall into the error of thinking there is
something wrong with you. Making yourself into a problem the ego
loves that. The knowing needs to be followed by accepting. Anything
else will obscure it again. Accepting means you allow yourself to feel
whatever it is you are feeling at that moment. It is part of the is?ness of
the Now . Y oucan't ar gue with what is. W ell, you can, but if you do, you suf fer . Through allowing, you become what you are: vast, spacious. Y ou
become whole. Y ou are not a fragment anymore, which is how the ego
perceives itself. Y our true nature emer ges, which is one with the nature
of God. Jesus points to this when he says, Be ye whole, even as your Father in
Heaven is whole. The New T estament's Be ye perfect is a mistranslation
of he original Greek word, which means whole. This is to say , you don't
need to become whole, but be what you already are with or without the
pain? body .C H A P T E R  S E V E N  F I N D I N G  O U T  W H O
Y O U  R E A L L Y  A R E
Gnothi Seauton Know Thyself. These words were inscribed above the
entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi, site of the sacred Oracle. In
ancient Greece, people would visit the Oracle hoping to find out what
destiny had in store for them or what course of action to take in a
particular situation. It is likely that most visitors read those words as they
entered the building without realizing that they pointed to a deeper truth
than anything the Oracle could possibly tell them. They may not have
realized either that, no matter how great a revelation or how accurate the
information they received, it would ultimately prove to be of no avail,
would not save them from further unhappiness and self?created
suf fering, if they failed to find the truth that is concealed in that
injunction Know Thyself. What those words imply is this: Before you
ask any other question, first ask the most fundamental question of your
life: Who am I? Unconscious people and many remain unconscious, trapped in their egos
throughout their lives will quickly tell you who they are: their name,
their occupation, their personal history , the shape or state of their body ,
and whatever else they identify with. Others may appear to be more
evolved because they think of themselves as an immortal soul or living
spirit. But do they really know themselves, or have they just added some
spiritual? sounding concepts to the content of their mind? Knowing
yourself goes far deeper than the adoption of a set of ideas or beliefs. Spiritual ideas and
beliefs may at best be helpful pointers, but in themselves they rarely
have the power to dislodge the more firmly established core concepts of
who you think you are, which are part of the conditioning of the human
mind. Knowing yourself deeply has nothing to do with whatever ideas
are floating around in your mind. Knowing yourself is to be rooted in
Being, instead of lost in your mind.A New Earth
W H O  Y O U  T H I N K  Y O U  A R E
Y our sense of who you are determines what you perceive as your needs
and what matters to you in life and whatever matters to you will have the
power to upset and disturb you. Y ou can use this as a criterion to find out
how deeply you know yourself. What matters to you is not necessarily
what you say or believe, but what your actions and reactions reveal as
important and serious to you. So you may what to ask yourself the
question: What are the things that upset and disturb me? If small things
have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly
that: small. That will be your unconscious belief. What are the small
things? Ultimately all things are small things because all things are
transient. Y ou might say , I know I am an immortal spirit, or I am tired of this mad
world, and peace is all I want ? until the phone rings. Bad news: The
stock market has collapsed; the deal may fall through; the car has been
stolen; your mother?in?law has arrived; the trip is cancelled, the contract
has been broken; your partner has left you; they demand more money;
they say it's your fault. Suddenly there is a sur ge of anger , of anxiety . A
harshness comes into your voice; I can't take any more of this.
_OceanofPDF.com_A_New_Earth_-_Tolle_Eckhart.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Their
emotional thinking has become their self, and so they hang on to the old
emotion because it strengthens their identity. Because of the human tendency to perpetuate old emotion, almost
everyone carries in his or her ener gy filed an accumulation of old
emotional pain, which I call the pain. body. W e can, however, stop adding to the pin. body that we already have. W e
can learn to break the habit of accumulating and perpetuating old
emotion by flapping our wings, metaphorically speaking, and refrain
from mentally dwelling on the past, regardless of whether something
happened yesterday or thirty years ago. W e can learn not to keep
situations or events alive in our minds, but to return our attention
continuously to the pristine, timeless present moment rather than be
caught up in mental movie. making. Our very Presence then becomes our
identity, rather than our thoughts and emotions. Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being
present now; and if the past cannot prevent you from being present now,
what power does it have. A New Earth
I N D I V I D U A L  A N D  C O L L E C T I V E
Any negative emotion that is not fully faced and seen for what it is in the
moment it arises does not completely dissolve. It leaves behind a
remnant of pain. Children in particular find strong negative emotions too overwhelming to
cope with and tend to try not to feel them. In the absence of a fully
conscious adult who guides them with love and compassionate
understanding into facing the emotion directly, choosing not to feel it is
indeed the only option for the child at that time. Unfortunately, that early
defense mechanism usually remains in place when the child becomes an
adult. The emotion still lives in him or her unrecognized and manifests
indirectly, for example, as anxiety, anger, outbursts of violence, a mood,
or even as a physical illness. In some cases, it interferes with or
sabotages every intimate relationship. Most psychotherapists have met
patients who claimed initially to have had a totally happy childhood, and
later the opposite turned out to be the case. Those may be the more
extreme cases, but nobody can go through childhood without suf fering
emotional pain. Even if both of your parents were enlightened, you
would still find yourself growing up in a lar gely unconscious world. The remnants of pain left behind by every strong negative emotion that is
not fully faced, accepted, and then let go of join together to form an
ener gy filed that lives in the very cells of your body. It consists not just
of childhood pain, but also painful emotions that were added to it later in
adolescence and during your adult life, much of it created by the voice of
the ego. It is the emotional pain that is your unavoidable companion
when a false sense of self is the basis of your life. This ener gy field of old but still very. much. alive emotion that lives in
almost every human being is the pain.
Because it strengthens their identity.
Why do people hold onto old emotions?
The pain-body.
What is the accumulation of old emotional pain called?
Yes, we can learn to break the habit of accumulating and perpetuating old emotion by not mentally dwelling on the past.
Can we stop adding to our pain-body?
It is the accumulation of pain suffered by countless humans throughout history, which is added to daily.
What is the collective pain-body?
No, the pain-body cannot be present with you; it is a semi-autonomous energy form that seeks to perpetuate itself through negative thinking and drama.
Can we be present and still have a pain-body?