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This will come out as almost anti-existentialism. Which is why it is here.

Is pain how we know we are alive?

Is pain, how we know, we are alive?

What is pain?
There are many kinds surely.
Pain of the heart or love.
That which tells you were once with one or now without forever another.
Another heart to beat.
Pain of the brain or mind.
That which makes you slow or fast, behind one or infront another.
Another mind to know.
Pain of the body or being.
That which keeps you warm or cold, holding one or never being held by another.
Another pulse to feel.
Pain of the soul or God.
That which keeps all pain active and real for one or another.
To not experience would be a fine thing.

End of cycle, rerun anyone?

Is pain how we know we are alive?

Is pain how we know we are death?

One, both, neither or more?

What makes you know you are alive that is not only pain?

@sometime sun,

Pain is really one of few things that is both a potent physical and emotional feeling. Biologically, it's a mechanism to persuade us to look out for ourselves so pain would really be how we know we're alive. In death, or facing death at a probability of near 1, there doesn't seem to be much need for pain. However, if our existence is really defined by pain, we're probably living on the same plane as all other mammals. We wouldn't be any more significant or meaningfully advanced compared to a deer or a bear. Maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing, but its certainly a concept I think a lot of people find hard to embrace.

@Sam I Am phil,

Sam I Am;121900 wrote:

Pain is really one of few things that is both a potent physical and emotional feeling. Biologically, it's a mechanism to persuade us to look out for ourselves so pain would really be how we know we're alive. In death, or facing death at a probability of near 1, there doesn't seem to be much need for pain. However, if our existence is really defined by pain, we're probably living on the same plane as all other mammals. We wouldn't be any more significant or meaningfully advanced compared to a deer or a bear. Maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing, but its certainly a concept I think a lot of people find hard to embrace.

Is the avoidance of pain the avoidance of life?
Is our avoidance of death an avoidance of pain or our avoidance of pain an avoidance of death?
Are we more for fearing and this stingent avoidance of pain more real?
Does the avoidance of pain and thereof pain make us more or less real?
Are we more real when in pain or less real when without it?
Just as are we less real when in pain or more real without it?

@sometime sun,

Avoidance of pain is a biological indicator of life but mentally if you escape pain you do, in some sense, elevate yourself from our world. Without pain, many seemingly insurmountable barriers would be easily conquered. The difficulty here is that without pain you can be both invincible and immobile. Unfortunately, that requires complete isolation and introversion.
So we are more real with pain in the sense that we are embracing the human condition. Without pain we are more abstract in the sense that we transcend elements of human life.

@Sam I Am phil,

So is the pain from the other outer rather than the owner inner?

@sometime sun,

It can occur in both but it must occur externally at first. Consider this: if a hypothetical person had never had any contact with any pain or people, could they superimpose internal pain? To this hypothetical person, describing pain would be like asking a blind person to describe color.
And what about emotional pain? There aren't very many precedents for this but I would venture a guess that we learn to feel emotional pain through interacting with others.

@Sam I Am phil,

Sam I Am;122260 wrote:

It can occur in both but it must occur externally at first. Consider this: if a hypothetical person had never had any contact with any pain or people, could they superimpose internal pain? To this hypothetical person, describing pain would be like asking a blind person to describe color.
And what about emotional pain? There aren't very many precedents for this but I would venture a guess that we learn to feel emotional pain through interacting with others.

So there isn't a source pain? that is which strives compells us towards others in the first place, we need to heal a pain we only feel when alone or at least to a lesser degree without.
We do i think learn to control the pain through the presence of others and their pain they give and their own pain they take.

@sometime sun,

sometime sun;122265 wrote:

So there isn't a source pain? that is which strives compells us towards others in the first place, we need to heal a pain we only feel when alone or at least to a lesser degree without.

Biologically, I think we need social interaction for development (feral children are a prime example of what happens without it). But as for whether we are driven to interaction by pain or by choice, I cannot say. We are social animals, but I think that has more to do with instinct and adaptivity than pain.

sometime sun;122265 wrote:

We do i think learn to control the pain through the presence of others and their pain they give and their own pain they take.

Oddly enough, I find pain to be intensely personal, and I find myself having very little patience for others who can't control theirs. I realize that's a bit cold-hearted but I've been able to handle pain from a very young age and people who can't perplex me a bit.

@Sam I Am phil,

Sam I Am;122581 wrote:

Oddly enough, I find pain to be intensely personal, and I find myself having very little patience for others who can't control theirs. I realize that's a bit cold-hearted but I've been able to handle pain from a very young age and people who can't perplex me a bit.

So maybe you were left with, born with less pain?
Perhaps you were born with the thincker skin we all wish we could have?
Perhaps your upbringing (wonderful word 'upbringing') lended you to either deal with inate pain or this upbringing exposed you to less of it?

@sometime sun,

sometime sun;123357 wrote:

So maybe you were left with, born with less pain?
Perhaps you were born with the thincker skin we all wish we could have?
Perhaps your upbringing (wonderful word 'upbringing') lended you to either deal with inate pain or this upbringing exposed you to less of it?

Quite possibly, though I don't pretend for a second to have a had a "tough" childhood. I'm a middle class white kid. I've faced relatively few difficulties.

But I'm not sure that a thicker skin is always better. Pain is an important way that we communicate and relate to others. Without pain, empathy is much harder.

@Sam I Am phil,

Sam I Am;123577 wrote:

Quite possibly, though I don't pretend for a second to have a had a "tough" childhood. I'm a middle class white kid. I've faced relatively few difficulties.

But the pains you have faced were mamouth.
You have faced some, so were you strong in the face of them or were you as child in the face of a question unknown to ask?
The pain you have felt and overcome, were you upright to its machinations or were you on your back begging for mercy?
Screaming for some one to come and pick you up and hold you?

I am alone, i am always begging and always screaming.

Sam I Am;123577 wrote:

But I'm not sure that a thicker skin is always better. Pain is an important way that we communicate and relate to others. Without pain, empathy is much harder.

'Without pain empathy is much harder' I like that enough to take it as my own.
Presuming you were giving it as a gift:)

---------- Post added 01-30-2010 at 01:41 AM ----------

love the one you are with.

---------- Post added 01-30-2010 at 01:42 AM ----------

you are with the one love.

---------- Post added 01-30-2010 at 01:43 AM ----------

the one you are with love.

---------- Post added 01-30-2010 at 01:45 AM ----------

with the one you are love.

---------- Post added 01-30-2010 at 01:47 AM ----------

with the love you are one.

---------- Post added 01-30-2010 at 01:48 AM ----------

you are the one with love.

@sometime sun,

Pain from any source is a threat to our survival!

Our desire for survival is what drives our life.

There is no way to avoid pain in life because once an individual stops working towards survival pain will come.

Joy is the lack of pain and is a reward of actions towards survival.

To experience more joy than pain you must become responsible for your own survival and eliminate those things from your life that bring unnecessary pain.

LaMar

@sometime sun,

Pain is experiencing what you don't want.

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