… Some months ago … at the monastery in Tassajara, … a student told Suzuki Roshi with great pride that he didn’t have pain any more in his legs. (The Japanese tradition stresses the cross-legged position which encourages pain.) The student felt he had made the grade. Suzuki Roshi made a long face and said, “You know pain is a great help for beginners to stay awake.”.

I (recently) went through the “Rolfing” (a system evolved by Ida Rolf involving a type of deep massage which brings about certain changes in the body and posture). I believe a lot of what is involved is the experience of pain per se… It was an extremely interesting experience. From the point of view of the attitudes to pain, and the letting go in pain. Dr. Rolf knows exactly what she is doing she is separating muscle bundles to make the muscles free again to allow your posture to be what it wants to be … This pain can be quite intense, but once you leave the session, it’s over. You find it’s good business to let go, … that it’s bad business to resist. If you are faking the pain, (or) if you are tensing up, it hurts more.

I think that this is a basic situation in life, to (learn) to give in to physical pain. If you can give in, and let go, and let pain … just/ tee there … this experience will’ carry over into life. So much of our aware ness is restricted because ware avoiding pain avoiding unpleasantness at all levels: avoiding psychological pain, and not seeing beyond] avoiding the unpleasantness of bending over, and so on … but avoiding. The key to avoidance is pain, or the fantasy of pain. To (experience) physical pain directly, and to give in is, I think the key to many of the ascetic practices which our haughty modern minds disdain as masochistic…To Stay Awake