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How To Seek Out Searing Pain That Allows Us To Be Ashes
I don’t like pain. When it is unavoidable, though, we might as well let it kill who we are today
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, states the popular adage. While we could debate the accuracy of such a statement, its message is clear.
I’ve always believed that pain is to be avoided, though. As a matter of fact, pain is a warning system: ‘stop doing this, you fool, or you’re going to be in real trouble’, say the skin cells to the brain cells responsible for telling your arm muscles to move your hand away from the flame.
However, some pain is inevitable. Some pain is even to be sought out. This is one of the traits that makes us the species that we are: we can see beyond the pain, know that beyond the pain lies our reward, and so we push through.
This realisation also lies at the heart of our darkness: it is why some choose to have others suffer only for them to collect the fruits of their exploits. But these despicable beings aren’t the focus of today’s thought.
The focus is a pain that isn’t physical. The psychological pain, the existential pain, the pain that resides in our minds, the pain that we instinctively run from, the pain that deprives us of our appetite and sleep… Is…