Oneday I'll open myself

The iron maiden is a torture and execution device, consisting of an iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior, sufficiently tall to... more

by Adrian Borda

Original - Not For Sale

Price

Not Specified

Dimensions

40.000 x 50.000 cm.

Title

Oneday I'll open myself

Artist

Adrian Borda

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

The iron maiden is a torture and execution device, consisting of an iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior, sufficiently tall to enclose a human being.
I find the iron maiden a nice metaphor of the pain body, a concept that was so well defined bu Eckhart Tolle. The pain body is almost like an old emotional entity living inside us, an accumulation of traumatic and painful life experience that sticks around because it was not fully faced and accepted in the moment it arose. A pain-body may be dormant most of the time, but in a deeply unhappy person might live almost entirely through their pain-body, while others may experience it only in certain situations, such as intimate relationships, or situations linked with past loss or abandonment, physical or emotional hurt, and so on. Anything can trigger it, particularly if it resonates with a pain pattern from your past. When it is ready to awaken from its dormant stage, even a thought or an innocent remark made by someone close to you can activate it.
When it awakens, it's almost like we switch to an automatic pilot system that takes away most of our self awareness, and once the pain-body has taken you over, you want more pain for you and for others. The neurotransmitters released in such stressful moments are also addictive, and we tend to crave for them after a period.
You are not conscious of this, of course, and will vehemently claim that you do not want pain. But look closely and you will find that your thinking and behavior are designed to keep the pain going, for yourself and others. If you were truly conscious of it, the pattern would dissolve, for to want more pain is insanity, and nobody is consciously insane.
The pain-body, which is the dark shadow cast by the ego, is actually afraid of the light of your consciousness. It is afraid of being found out. Its survival depends on your unconscious identification with it, as well as on your unconscious fear of facing the pain that lives in you. But if you don’t face it, if you don’t bring the light of your consciousness into the pain, you will be forced to relive it again and again. The pain-body may seem to you like a dangerous monster that you cannot bear to look at, but I assure you that it is an insubstantial phantom that cannot prevail against the power of your presence.
Must give credit to artists like Miles Johnston and Conner Smith that were an inspiration for this work.

Uploaded

June 24th, 2020