The process that I have just described is profoundly powerful yet
simple. It could be taught to a child, and hopefully one day it will be
one of the first things children learn in school. Once you have
understood the basic principle of being present as the watcher of what
happens inside you — and you “understand” it by experiencing it —
you have at your disposal the most potent transformational tool.
This is not to deny that you may encounter intense inner resistance to
disidentifying from your pain. This will be the case particularly if you
have lived closely identified with your emotional pain-body for most of
your life and the whole or a large part of your sense of self is invested
in it. What this means is that you have made an unhappy self out of
your pain-body and believe that this mind-made fiction is who you
are. In that case, unconscious fear of losing your identity will create
strong resistance to any disidentification. In other words, you would
rather be in pain — be the pain-body — than take a leap into the
unknown and risk losing the familiar unhappy self.
If this applies to you, observe the resistance within yourself. Observe
the attachment to your pain. Be very alert. Observe the peculiar
pleasure you derive from being unhappy. Observe the compulsion to
talk or think about it. The resistance will cease if you make it
conscious. You can then take your attention into the pain-body, stay
present as the witness, and so initiate its transmutation.
Onl y you can do this. Nobody can do it for you. But if you are
fortunate enough to find someone who is intensely conscious, if you
can be with them and join them in the state of presence, that can be
helpful and will accelerate things. In this way, your own light will
quickly grow stronger. When a log that has only just started to burn is
placed next to one that is burning fiercely, and after a while they are
separated again, the first log will be burning with much greater
intensity. After all, it is the same fire. To be such a fire is one of the
functions of a spiritual teacher. Some therapists may also be able to
fulfill that function, provided that they have gone beyond the level of
mind and can create and sustain a state of intense conscious presence
while they are working with you.