Best for chronic pain

Hello, new to KFD

I have some chronic burning pain in my feet which is very distressing and I want to get rid of it [no known medical cause - everything checked]. I've tried watching it carefully without judgment and without reaction. Didn't help. Can members here suggest anything? Thank you.

I feel for you, EQY.

My experience is that meditation will not get rid of pain. Going through various stages of awakening will change the experience of it so that it will no longer affect one's mind states causing depression and sadness. The feelings of pain and discomfort are still present but aversion to the experience no longer arises.

Having said that, it is also possible to use pain by taking it as an object of meditation, deconstruct the sensations and mind's reactions to them and see some interesting things. But that requires quite a lot of concentration and is still unpleasant.

Another way to utilize pain would be seeing the emptiness of the physical sensations of pain and discomfort and arrive at the conclusion that everything is mind and mind is unreal. For more, see tibetan Mahamudra tradition or this old thread on emptiness meditation:

kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/thread/49...Emptiness+meditation

I really hope that you will find some medical way (e.g. drugs like Tramal or Lyrica that affect the central nervous system) to alleviate your symptoms as pain is generally a major hindrance to the practice.

Antero.

I have had periods over the years of chronic knee pain, chronic upper or lower back pain, and chronic foot pain, all of which in the end turned out to be simply from unconsciously clenching muscles (done chronically, this gets really painful!). It really felt at times like there must be something wrong, but I had various medical checkups and there was no recognizable cause. What finally helped me recognize that it was tension was that when I (in some desperation) went to an acupuncturist, the pain went away quite quickly. And when I started a qi gong practice, I found it helped maintain a constant awareness and release of tension and clenching, so that the pain doesn't recur. This may not be relevant to your particular case, but it's worth exploring (since you've ruled out medical causes) practices like tai chi, or qi gong or Alexander technique, which help you become very aware of your body movement, posture, muscle use, and tension/relaxation. Some kinds of yoga can help, but it is probably best not to jump into an exercise-oriented yoga class until you've become more aware of posture and tension through a more subtle practice like the others I mention. Many yoga classes are more focused on gymnastic exercise, and don't pay as much attention to developing awareness and relaxation, and then you just end up pulling a muscle or getting cramps.

If it does turn out to be tension related, then those practices give you the tools to pay attention to the sometimes very subtle underlying tension and learn to release it through mental attention to the area. Just an idea...

"Hello, new to KFD

I have some chronic burning pain in my feet which is very distressing and I want to get rid of it [no known medical cause - everything checked]. I've tried watching it carefully without judgment and without reaction. Didn't help. Can members here suggest anything? Thank you."

Hi EQY

Not that I'm an expert yet, but my current studies as well as personal experience in shiatsu and traditional chinese medicine have shown that there may be other avenues of dealing with physical issues. I would advise not looking to cure the ailment via meditation as that most probably will result in establishing even more aversion towards the ailment and the meditation will be fueled by the wrong motivations. When fueled by the wrong motivations, one may end up with even more frustration as well as cement an unfortunate not-so-helpful view of meditation. I suggest getting it treated via other ways of treatment if western medicine has so far failed you. A good meditation practice in whichever tradition and approach would be a good accompaniment and support for the treatment you choose. But hold off relying on the meditation as the cure. Rather see it as a means to manage the mental aversion towards the ailment. It is a cure for that aversion, not the ailment (though it may well be psychosomatic, but who knows for sure with these things). I advise going to an acupuncturist and/or qualified experienced shiatsu practitioner to treat the ailment if you have exhausted all the medical options.

www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA349099

www.livestrong.com/article/266635-herbs-for-burning-feet/

www.acufinder.com/Acupuncture+Informatio...and+Chinese+Medicine

Nick

Thanks to those who replied. I appreciate it.

hi eqy. i had chronic burning pain in my feet and lower legs for ages before a doctor put me on lyrica. it definately helps me. curiously enough, lyrica i think sort of promotes meditation. it is a bit hard to describe, but the feeling of suddenly being drawn into a meditative state happens to me more when i take it; like sort of access concentration is sitting there just waiting for me. anyway, it's nice there's an upside to having to take pills for chronic pain...

This might be another good resource to look into:

www.shinzen.org/Articles/artPain.pdf

Thanks Jack and beta.

Unfortunately Lyrica is prohibitively expensive here (many hundreds of $/month). But it sounds like the right thing.
I'm trying shinzen's approach.

Shinzen's approach is good.

I also found that working with the techniques and outlook outlined by Ayya Khemma www.amazon.com/Who-My-Self-Buddhist-Meditation/dp/0861711270 lead to a very interesting place, where-in an extremely bad headache/toothache would be turned into intense pleasure while I meditated.

Try this for starters (if you feel like it):
Shinzen guides a meditation for Pain. Part 1 - 3