Veritas said:

The question which arises for me about physical pain is: do we allow ourselves to experience the pain as-is, or do we overlay suffering onto the sensation by resisting and refusing the experience itself?

I gave birth to both my sons without the use of pain medication, and I discovered an amazing difference between experiencing pain and fighting pain. When I accepted the painful nature of my physical experience, and ceased to demand an alternate version of reality, my perception of the pain itself was changed. I did everything I could to relax into the pain, which is the opposite of our reflexive reaction.

It seems to me that this is applicable to the experience of life in general--we know that there will be pain, we can accept that reality (though we may not like it), and we can cease to demand an alternate version. We can relax into the pain/pleasure aspects of our life experience, and reduce the emotional suffering created by neurosis.

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Quote:

"Renounce your error," shouts the Duke of Bavaria. "I have taught no error. The truths I have I taught will seal with my blood." "Burn him." The executioner holds his torch to the fagots. Huss began to sing with a loud voice, 'Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.' And when he began to say the same the third time, the wind so blew the flame in his face that it choked him. What is it that the people hear coming from that sheet of flame? "Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will toward men." It is the song which the angels sung above the pastures of Bethlehem. And this: "We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory." It is Gloria in Excelsis. The smoke blinds him, the flames are circling above his head. Yet the voice goes on: "Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on me." The flames wrap him round, his head falls on his breast.
Huss had given up the ghost.

Poggius, who was secretary to the council, and Aeneas Sylvius, who afterwards became Pope, and whose narratives are not liable to the suspicion of being coloured, bear even higher testimony to the heroic demeanour of both Huss and Jerome at their execution. "Both," says the latter historian, "bore themselves with constant mind when their last hour approached. They prepared for the fire as if they were going to a marriage feast. They uttered no cry of pain. When the flames rose they began to sing hymns; and scarce could the vehemency of the fire stop their singing."

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