Think Ahead - Look Back. The spiritual perspective and The Problem of "Pain"

There is a spiritual problem with "pain" - especially if "pain" is understood to refer to the whole gamut of aversive emotions, and all kinds of sufferings. And this problem is that it is not then possible to think about complex matters, or follow a chain of reasoning. Instead the "pain" tends to monopolize attention and overwhelm efforts at other purposive activities - including spiritual. 

This may mean that our usual, and ideal, spiritual practices cannot (or at any rate do not) happen - and we may become habitually focused upon the material - on palliating or escaping the "pain". 

What is needed, in a spiritual sense, must be extremely simple - because otherwise it won't happen. 

A "mantra" is one traditional tactic - an over-and-over-repeated word or short phrase: for Christians, this has often been The Jesus Prayer, or (even shorter) the Name of Jesus. 

But these were devised during the "medieval" era when Man's consciousness was such that (to a significant extent) the word was that which was represented: "the word was the thing". Then; to speak the name of Jesus was itself to become aligned with Jesus. 

For modern Men this may not happen. Instead of the name of Jesus having a positive spiritual effect, it may be that the name of Jesus just loses all meaning and spiritual connotations when too often repeated. 

...It just become automatic, a habit, like humming an "ear worm" tune. 

Here is another possibility, that sometimes works... The aim is to get-out from the materiality of here-and-now, and to restore a spiritual perspective on the current situation. 

The tactic is:

Think Ahead - Look Back 

This simply means to Think Ahead in order to imagine being in resurrected eternal life in Heaven; then to Look Back from imagined salvation onto your present situation. 

If it works, this will - for at least a moment - put your current "pain" into an eternal and Heavenly perspective. 

It des not make the "pain" go away, or even diminish it; but it is a reminder that it cannot go on forever, and will come to an end: a Good end, that is a beginning.

Since Earth is "a school" and the eternal role of mortal life is as a time and place of learning; Looking Back is a proper attitude to enable this learning, during times that would otherwise be wholly negative. 

Think Ahead, Look Back is more difficult and complex than The Jesus Prayer; but if the prayer isn't working, it might be worth a try.