Practices for chronic pain

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ZopaChotso
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Practices for chronic pain

Post by ZopaChotso »

What practices help ease chronic body pain? I grew up playing American football and lifting heavy weights. It messed up my posture causing constant back pain, among many other long lasting injuries.
I do physical therapy, massage, balancing exercises, and I use cbd and other things to help the pain and try to fix my body. I'm just also aware that this may be my karma for participating in those events, and I may feel this way the rest of my life, only so much damage can be repaired. Even the Buddha dealt with constant back pain. Sometimes my pain and discomfort is so great, sitting for sadhana becomes impossible. Even if I were to fight through it and sit, I wouldn't be doing anything but reading words because of how immensely distracting the pain is.

So my question is, what practices could help with the pain? I'm doing all the western physical stuff like core strengthing and all that, I'm looking for practices to do ON TOP of that. Is medicine buddha a good option?
jet.urgyen
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by jet.urgyen »

ZopaChotso wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:31 pm What practices help ease chronic body pain? I grew up playing American football and lifting heavy weights. It messed up my posture causing constant back pain, among many other long lasting injuries.
I do physical therapy, massage, balancing exercises, and I use cbd and other things to help the pain and try to fix my body. I'm just also aware that this may be my karma for participating in those events, and I may feel this way the rest of my life, only so much damage can be repaired. Even the Buddha dealt with constant back pain. Sometimes my pain and discomfort is so great, sitting for sadhana becomes impossible. Even if I were to fight through it and sit, I wouldn't be doing anything but reading words because of how immensely distracting the pain is.

So my question is, what practices could help with the pain? I'm doing all the western physical stuff like core strengthing and all that, I'm looking for practices to do ON TOP of that. Is medicine buddha a good option?
Point is having your back as straight as possible, and this can achieved by staying in bed also. If you have a body impediment you can lay down and practice.

"Lotus" or any position isn't paramount unless the instructions specify it.

I don't know what practices would cause you a swift relief.
true dharma is inexpressible.

The bodhisattva nourishes from bodhicitta, through whatever method the Buddha has given him. Oh joy.
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Sādhaka
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by Sādhaka »

Medicine Buddha is good, because Mantras resonate within the physical body and can have healing effects in that regard.

IME, visualizations & chanting can only go so far though (however I also don’t want to say that ‘mind over matter’ isn’t true either).

On the physical level, some type of physical Yoga. Of course if you have pain to the point of being debilitated, then you’d want to learn whatever Yoga very slowly and gradually.

The following is not medical advice. It’s for entertainment purposes if you will:

Fasting; because autophagy. One of the best ways to heal.

Also are you getting enough of all the electrolytes, iodine/potassium-iodide, glutathione, Zinc & Copper, D3 &K2, and the precursors to collagen production?

Eating a lot of nightshades can aggravate joint-pain too apparently….
Last edited by Sādhaka on Tue Mar 21, 2023 6:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Soma999
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by Soma999 »

You can recite medicine Buddha and perform specific visualisation given by Tulku Thondup, that is in each cells there is a medicine Buddha, each cell is vast, spacious and luminous…

At the same time, look for alternative medicine. I had a scoliosis, a traditionnal healer removed it by putting her hands on my back. And it is supposed incurable…

Everything is curable, you need to find the right persons and medicine. Medicine Buddha not only will induce healing, but also creates the cause to meet persons and technics able to improve your situation.

Joe Dispenza offers a good teaching also on the healing power of mind.

If you look the vows taken by Medicine Buddha, it is clears he has the potential to bring all kind of healings on all situation. Then we need faith, patience, courage and to keep an open-mind as healing may also take the form of outer help.
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Johnny Dangerous
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

ZopaChotso wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:31 pm What practices help ease chronic body pain? I grew up playing American football and lifting heavy weights. It messed up my posture causing constant back pain, among many other long lasting injuries.
I do physical therapy, massage, balancing exercises, and I use cbd and other things to help the pain and try to fix my body. I'm just also aware that this may be my karma for participating in those events, and I may feel this way the rest of my life, only so much damage can be repaired. Even the Buddha dealt with constant back pain. Sometimes my pain and discomfort is so great, sitting for sadhana becomes impossible. Even if I were to fight through it and sit, I wouldn't be doing anything but reading words because of how immensely distracting the pain is.

So my question is, what practices could help with the pain? I'm doing all the western physical stuff like core strengthing and all that, I'm looking for practices to do ON TOP of that. Is medicine buddha a good option?
How old are you? What kind of injuries do you have, do you a good pt and have you remained physically active?

Dharma practice wise the best for me has been Vipassana type meditation, as seeing the way that physical and emotional pain feed off each other is really useful, and one can simply experience the physical pain as is.

You can avoid the “second arrow” of the emotional pain.

I’ve also made good use of acupuncture for pain relief at times, with varied results.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

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Sādhaka
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by Sādhaka »

Sādhaka wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 6:37 pm

For what it’s worth, it wasn’t my intention at all to downplay Medicine Buddha. With enough confidence in the practice, it could very well be enough all by itself. Same with other Mantra & Visualization practices.

On the other hand, perhaps there’s a reason why in Esoteric Buddhism we have things such as Ayurveda/Tibetan Medicine, and Yogic practices, etc.

84,000 teachings & methods for various sentient-being’s different proclivities and all that though.
Inedible
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by Inedible »

ZopaChotso wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:31 pm western physical stuff like core strengthing and all that
This can increase your pain.

My suggestion: https://edwardbarrera.com/
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Johnny Dangerous
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

8 Steps to a Pain Free Back by Esther Gokhale really helped.

I have chronic back issues stemming from a problem I was born with. Her book is a little long winded for what it is and I found it mildly obnoxious, but soundly reasoned and the exercises (though it’s hard to call them that) really work and are incredibly simple.

It’s basically a bunch of ways to do daily activities, sit, stand while also decompressing your spine. My reaction to it was something like “how did I not know to do this naturally”,but I didn’t.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

-Khunu Lama
fckw
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by fckw »

To be frank, when I'm in pain for whatever reason (thank the buddha's that's really rarely the case, but then again, old age is still before me...) then to me I'm usually trying the following things in this order:

If I manage I simply rest my mind in the natural state. Sometimes that works, sometimes it does not.
If that does not work, I try to fall back to any other practice. The ones I find helpful:
1. Dorje gotrab mantra recitation
2. Medicine buddha or Urgyen menla mantra recitation
3. Guru yoga
4. Tonglen and/or compassion meditation towards myself

It's not that the pain simply disappears through those practices, but they may actually help me deal with it better, each one in their own way.
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PadmaVonSamba
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by PadmaVonSamba »

ZopaChotso wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:31 pm What practices help ease chronic body pain?
The constant, momentary experience of pain can be very intense. My backbone is slowly wearing out and to stand for long periods even with back support is exhausting if not painful.

In the moment, if one can visualize that one is taking on the suffering of all beings, strangely enough, this can make the experience itself vanish. You’d think it would increase the pain, but the effect is just the opposite. It’s difficult to maintain, but it does help some people.
EMPTIFUL.
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amanitamusc
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by Mirror »

amanitamusc wrote: Sat Mar 25, 2023 7:24 pmTonglen
:good:
Memento mori
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uktsr
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Re: Practices for chronic pain

Post by uktsr »

Hi,
I appreciated this is within the Tibetan forum so you may be wishing for specific Tibetan practices, but I am aware of a Buddhist author within the Triratna Buddhist Community called Vidyamala. It has been her life's work for helping those with chronic pain and by all accounts a very devoted practitioner. It may be worth checking out her materials.
Kindly
Tom
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