Pain and Pleasure: All In the Mind

Pain is all in the mind. We all know that pain and pleasure, and all of our senses, are how our brain interprets the signals sent by the sense receptors throughout our bodies, which means, from a certain mode of thinking, that all of what we hear, see, feel, taste, enjoy, dislike, are merely how our brain translates the data it receives and are not real.

In times of great physical pain, have you ever tried to remind yourself that the pain was not real, that it was merely your brain's interpretation, and tried to lessen the pain by focusing on separating the brain's translation of the pain receptors from the wound itself?

Likewise, have you ever listened to music you enjoyed, and really tried to analyze what it was you were enjoying, why you were enjoying it, and how it was making you feel the way you did? Have you ever chewed your food very slowly, pondering why you enjoyed it, how you enjoyed it, and what exactly was "enjoyment"? How about your visual, sensual, and olfactory enjoyments?

There have been times when I had agonizing migraines, when I tried to convince myself that the pain was all in my head, which it was, but I couldn't do it. I know that Tibetan monks and firewalkers somehow managed it, but it didn't work for me. During the summer I had sliced a small part of my finger and had to have it treated at the hospital. It hurt for weeks afterward. I tried a few times, by sitting quietly and looking at the finger, to persuade my mind that the pain I felt in that finger was not in the finger but was something separate from the finger that could be separated from it. I tried to imagine the pain as a spirit cloud that surrounded the finger, and visualized the cloud being lifted by my thoughts from the finger and cast away. I tried to convince myself that the pain was not real and was only my imagination, but it didn't work.

When I am eating something I do wonder why it tastes good. If I asked the chef he would say because of the nature of the food item and the spices he put on them, but that doesn't tell me why it was enjoyable to me. Suck on a mint. It tastes good. Why? Because you're sucking on it? Nope. Because it's peppermint flavor? Nope. Because you like mints? No, and that adds another question: why do you like them? My uncle cannot taste food. Nor can he smell it, both due to an illness he had when he was a young man, in the days before his illness was understood like it is now. What tastes good to me has no taste whatsoever to him. What tastes bad to me also has no taste whatsoever to him (which made it easy for his wife to cook for him).

Getting back to the mint...your taste receptors on your tongue tell your brain what the food feels like to them, and your brain interprets those sensations and you think it tastes good. But why do you think that? How do you think that? Not because of your brain, your tongue, or the flavor of the mint. Forget the tongue, forget the sucking, and forget the peppermint. Focus inside your mind, on your emotions and feelings about things. Why is the mint enjoyable to you? What is "enjoyment"? What is YOUR "enjoyment"?