Impermanence, Conditioned Arising and Pain
The impermanence and conditional arising includes the given of pain, as pain is an aspect of the lifeforce. We are not discussing a rock. As a human, I am subject to pain. These three marks will not change.
It is the human tendency to resist the existential facts and to want anything other than this to be true which gives rise to the suffering which Buddha addressed. The noble truths direct us to gaze into the hard existential truth, accept it and let go of the craving (wishful thinking) for any other magical alternative or solution.
I move forward separating pain from suffering. The painful fact doesn’t go away but the suffering can. The stubborn resistance to acceptance is the suffering. And over the years I have discovered that the specific pain is smaller as the layers of self-made suffering peel away. For me today, the pain aspect of the three marks is just as reasonable and acceptable as the conditional arising and the impermanence. In the end pain is only a subjective and language based opinion of a natural force. Is scratching pain or pleasure?
