Pain is felt in the mind. When we cut ourselves, the cut is felt as a stinging pain. The area that is registering this pain to our conscious mind is the mind. The actual cut itself may have blood pouring out, but we would only feel additional pain in that area if we were to touch it or to have that cut touched. Again, that additional pain would only be registered in the mind.
The mind is the main register of pain. There are many meditative practices that seek to control the mind and as such control the registering or the feeling of pain. The source of their meditative processes is their mind. All accounts of trained yogi’s and others who practice in the arts of mind and body control seek to control that part of the mind that controls pain. If they were to actually feel the pain of walking on burning coals, they might not walk on burning coals.
But, for the rest of us who are just trying to get along with feeling as little pain as possible, the years of training to sublimate pain is not feasible. And, for that matter, it is just as well. Pain lets us know that we have cut our hand and need to sterilize the cut and cover it. Pain in our abdomen lets us know that we could be suffering from appendicitis. Pain in our stomach tells us that we could have an ulcer. Acid reflux could be telling us that we are too much stress which is constricting our digestive system and we need to take corrective action. Without our mind’s signalling to us that we are in pain, we might die of an infection that could have been easily treated.
There are other parts of pain and the feeling of pain that some people don’t like to discuss.
You can die from pain. If the pain is too excruciating, your mind will literally burn itself out and cease to exist. Your body might still be functioning, but your brain is dead. The mind controls our bodies and without it, we are less than plants because without someone to feed our body, it too would die.

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