Unavoidable physical discomfort is also an opportunity to discover the true nature of pain. You will eventually learn to distinguish between physical discomfort as a sensation, and the mind’s unnecessary reaction to it, which is suffering. In the words of the Buddha, “When the uninstructed worldling experiences a painful feeling, he feels two things—a bodily one and a mental one. . . . When the instructed noble disciple experiences a painful feeling, he feels one thing—a bodily one, and not a mental one.”1 Pain disappears completely in the later Stages.
