Pain is evidence of the present moment.
When I notice pain only in the present, I remove it from the past and the future; in doing so, I reduce suffering. I lessen the weight of previous experiences and the fear of what this pain may bring. It stops dragging me through memory and anticipation. It remains only in this very moment.
When I stay with it in the present, almost as if meditating on it, the emotional burden begins to loosen.
If pain is inevitable, then it should be faced only in the present. In this way, it becomes less overwhelming, and consciousness learns to contain it.
