Transcript excerpt of a conversation between Sadhguru and Vishen Lakhiani exploring the nature of pain and suffering. Sadhguru distinguishes physical pain (a necessary survival mechanism) from psychological suffering, which he says is manufactured by one's reactions, thoughts, and emotions rather than by external events or the body.
If there was no pain in our body, we would have cut ourselves into ribbons. They would pull out their intestines and roll it all over the place in the name of fashion. Maybe they would make their stomach bag into their handbag. Who knows?
In lesson three of the program, you say people who have no control over their system say suffering is inevitable. But what you say is, no, suffering is your making. How are we making ourselves suffer?
See, there are two kinds of suffering. Or people think there are two kinds of suffering, but actually there's only one. Generally, we talk about physical suffering and mental suffering. See, physically we can only have pain. Pain is a defense mechanism. Pain is the basis of our survival. If there was no pain in our body, we would have cut ourselves into ribbons. You know, all the fashions that are there. You think they would just cut a mustache or a beard. They would cut their nose in many shapes. They would pull out their intestines and roll it all the place in the name of fashion. Yes. Maybe they would make their stomach bag into their handbag. Who knows anything they would have done if there was no pain. So pain is a safety. Without pain, most human beings don't have the sense even to survive. So pain is necessary and pain is very essential. Unfortunately, it is so. But suffering, that is something that you manufacture in your mind in reaction to either what is happening in your body or what is happening around you. So what kind of suffering you go through is not relevant to what is happening either in the body or in the world around you. It is relevant to how you react to situations of physiology or social situations around you. So your reaction is entirely yours. You can react the same way or you can react some other way. In a given situation, you will see for the same situations. One set of people will be suffering, another set of people will be enjoying the same thing simply because of the way they react to it. So suffering is entirely a psychological process. There is no other suffering. People say there is soul is suffering. No, there is no such thing. You suffer because of the kind of thoughts and emotions that you generate. And what kind of thought and what kind of emotion you generate is 100% yours if you are hands on with yourself.
