Pain isn't just the most effective weapon of control: it's the only one.

Tradition says that your are halfway up the path to enlightenment the moment you stop feeling pain. The first signpost to transcendence is the cessation of pain.


As for its redeeming side, it was the sight of pain that jolted the Buddha out of royal complacence and set him off on one of history's greatest spiritual journeys. And this is what the Buddha observed: "Birth is attended with pain, decay is pain, disease is painful, death is painful; Union with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant an any craving that is satisfied, that, too, is painful."

[link to www.lifepositive.com]

The article goes on to discuss how to relieve pain naturally, if you're interested.