In his lecture series “The Science of Enlightenment“, Shinzen Young discusses the possible implications of not being able to sit with discomfort. In a nutshell the problem is this: if you can’t tolerate discomfort for a short period of time you may end up acting in a way that inadvertently causes more discomfort. The usefulness of tolerating discomfort therefore is that it can move us closer to a state where discomfort is diminished in a real and sustainable way.

The nature of the world includes discomfort, pain and suffering as part of it’s spectrum (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths). If we accept this then we are prepared to a greater degree to deal with suffering when it does arise. By becoming intimate with our discomfort, by sitting with it, by going deeper past the reactionary part of ourselves to look at the sensory phenomena in it’s most basic form, we not only diminish the number of components parts that constitute an experience of suffering, but we also become partially liberated from it.

The perspective, however brief, that cultivating a higher level of tolerance for discomfort affords us is a part of what ultimately liberates us (in theory anyway 😉 By not immediately panicking when we experience something that isn’t pleasant we start to break the reactionary cycle. We also have an opportunity to pause and reflect before we act, creating a greater possibility for taking a more appropriate or effective action.

In the physical (asana) practice of yoga we learn how to tolerate discomfort and develop the ability to discern which discomfort is causing us harm and should be avoided, and which discomfort is a symptom of growth and change. Without conditioning ourselves to be interested yet unattached to the latter form of discomfort we may never truly be able to stop the primal, reactionary part of ourselves. This then leaves us moving from one state of discomfort to another in a misguided attempt to escape.

Try this at home:

The next time you you have a head-ache see if you can take some time out to sit and meditate on the experience: not the reactionary thoughts but the actual physical sensation of how a head-ache presents itself in the body. Ultimately this is an experiment so if the head-ache gets worse take a head-ache tablet, but see if can really get intimate with the experience first.