Trick Backs and Pulling Strings on Pain

I’ve got a trick back.

It’s a trick back because sometimes my body moves a certain way, and my back decides to move a different way.  Tricky indeed, but it’s not magical, and it’s certainly not entertaining.

So what the hell is a trick back good for?

Herding Awareness.

Pain lassos our awareness and seizes our attention fully. 

What’s so great about that?  Pain can be a useful tool for focused awareness and it works like a double-edged sword.

On the one side, pain localizes our attention. Consider, you’ve got a sharp pain in your back, and suddenly your awareness is a laser beam on that one spot.  You’ve pounced 100% on that pain.  If your attention were fireflies, you could bottle them all up in a giant mayonnaise jar at the site of your pain because that’s where it’s all hanging out.

That kind of localized attention is invaluable to the spiritual developer.   Pain makes awareness tangible because it causes our attention to get compact, tight, narrow and finely focused.  It’s priceless because it shows us what focused attention feels like.  Now that we know what it’s like to have all our fireflies of awareness shining brightly in one centralized spot – we can direct that attention in any way we choose.

And we all know, awareness is the key to – well, just about everything.  It’s certainly the key to reality.

What’s the other side of the sharp sword of pain?  Well, it’s awareness too, but of a symbolic kind.

I contend the body is a puppet whose operation is wholly reliant upon a vast network of energetic and spiritual strings. 

A string of thought is pulled, the body twitches.  A string of faith is plucked, the body dances. Pull a spiritual string often enough, over time, the body is going to heave-ho.

What’s this got to do with my trick back?  I’m glad you asked.

I frequently pull thought-strings about control issues that can make a caffeine-narcotic-addled banjo player look sedated.

Every back problem I’ve had can be traced back, at the moment of injury, to some illusory thought/belief over how much control I want, need, or think I have.

I’m taking this a step further by saying different body pains are a result of specific emotional strings being pulled. 

Backs and spines happen to be symbolic of core nervous issues which stem from the illusion of control.

Feet address foundational issues, a deep emotional need to feel stable, grounded and secure.

Eyes are symbolic of our perception, how we view the world, and our vision on a spiritual/intellectual scale.

You get my drift?

Take my trick back as an example of how pain can be a significant and symbolic tool for our personal growth.  If you’ve got pain, take a deeper look into it.  Try to trace the spiritual/emotional/thought strings connected to the pain. 

What strings are you yanking that are triggering pain, and localizing your attention?

Here is where I offer further reading on the subject.  That’s another trick, because I haven’t written much in this vein.

Maybe I’ll write a few pages on symbolic body parts. 

If you have issues with your hands, you might want to check out my meaning of hands page here.

Anyhoo, thanks for reading.

Oh, and by the way: You know I’m not advocating pain as a path to enlightenment, right?  Nope, just offering some thoughts on how pain (when it pops up, not self-imposed) can give us a new perspective on things.