Six Paths of Pain

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THE SIX PATHS OF PAIN “Through pain, even a foolish child will grow up. Through pain, words and thoughts are controlled. Pain forces the world to grow up” – Pain (Naruto Shippuden, Mashashi Kishimoto) I have seen so many references of pain. So many types of pain: Physical, mental, spiritual, and under these broad categories are thousands and thousands types of pain. I always thought, to understand pain, you have to experience it. To some extent this is true. I never understood the pain of a breakup until I actually experienced one. I never understood the pain suffered in addiction until I actually went through one. I never understood the pain of failure until I experienced it firsthand. But to some extent this is not true too. I feel the pain of animals being displaced due to corporate greed and modernization even though I have never experienced it. I feel the pain of a mother whose child is killed even though I have never experienced it. Is all that just empathy or sympathy? Or is that a form of pain? How is one supposed to understand pain? How does one actually acquire it? The answer to all my questions was not in a book by a well known author. It was in a Japanese anime (and manga) I watch (read) every week. A character appeared in that anime (manga) called “Pain”. This anime gave me a very profound approach to pain. I understood it much better. This character possessed unique power called Rinnegan (Samsara Eye) which allowed him to develop his “Six paths of Pain” – The Deva Path, The Asura Path, The Human Path, The Animal Path, The Preta Path, Naraka Path; each path possessing a unique ability and controlled by a single conscious mind (Outer Path), each of the six bodies are individually named after the Buddhist philosophy of “Six Realms of Existence” (Kishimoto, 2009) . This led me to create my own “Six Paths of Pain”. According to me, the six paths of
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