LWT 34 | Depression, Anxiety – When the Pain-Body Awakens – Teachings of Eckhart Tolle

Summary: On this episode of Living with Tolle we talk about the pain-body, a powerful spiritual insight Eckhart Tolle first introduced in The Power of Now. We explore how the pain-body manifests in life and strategies for dealing with the short term and long term effects. What is the Pain-Body? The pain-body has been described by Eckhart Tolle as past emotional pain alive in your life today. The pain-body is a living entity or energy field that is attached to the authentic expression of your life. As such, it can be described as a parasitic energy field engorging itself on your life energy. Think of a tapeworm: it releases a chemical in the body that makes you crave food that feeds and engorges the parasite, but is actually bad for you. "The pain-body is a semi-autonomous energy-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. ~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth But the pain-body is not just a personal problem. The pain-body is a collective phenomenon. The pain-body is transferred to the individual through social and cultural conditioning. You experience the collective pain-body on a personal level and through the many ways it can manifest in your life. In fact, the collective pain-body survives through individuals remaining unconscious and contributing “pain” from personal experiences. Eckhart has stated that your greatest responsibility is to personally cleanse yourself of the pain-body, so you no longer add to the collective pain-body. Why is acceptance such a powerful spiritual practice in dealing with the pain-body? The pain-body has two states: active and dormant. When it is active, it is a sign that you are not conscious enough to keep from reacting to life from the pain. And even though it may be uncomfortable and counterintuitive, when the pain-body is active the only constructive response is to be in acceptance of what is happening in this moment. "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 pain-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." ~ Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth If you enjoyed this podcast, you can share it with friends. Simply use the ShareThis button at the end of this post. Thanks! Key Highlights From Our Conversation Leo opens the conversation by talking about his recent feelings of depression. In short, daily life kicks in and overwhelms him. He describes a sense of “falling off the wagon,” specifically around his inability to feel present, to practice acceptance, and to connect with others in daily life, especially around his work life. Lack of time, work obligations, lack of joy all led him to a feeling of disillusionment with the spiritual teachings he’s been exploring. Even though intellectually the teachings make sense and have led him to a sense of awakening and greater presence, this “down” episode fundamentally challenges all he’s been working towards. He describes it as a feeling of having to go back and starting from the beginning. Greg points to the pain-body as a way to explain Leo’s situation. Thus begins a great conversation about the role of the pain-body on both a personal and a collective level and on the importance of acceptance as a powerful spiritual practice for dealing with the pain-body. (16:00) Many times people complain about the pain-body and don’t want it to come up. This is the ego complaining about the pain-body, but the energy of the complaint is what feeds the pain-body itself! So you have to go back to step one, which is acceptance. The best response is to be in acceptance when the pain-body is active,