To suddenlysee that you are or have been attached to
your pain can be quite a shocking realization. The moment
yourealize this,you have broken the attachment. The pain-
body is an energy field, almost like an entity, that has
become temporarily lodged in your inner space. It is life
energy that has become trapped, energy that is no longer
flowing.Ofcourse,thepain-bodyistherebecauseofcertain
things that happened in thepast. It/s the living past inyou,
and if you identify with it, you identify with the past. A
victim identity is the belief that the past is more powerful
thanthe present, whichis the oppositeof thetruth. It isthe
belief that other people and what they did to you are
responsibleforwhoyouarenow,foryouremotionalpainor
your inabilitytobe your true self.Thetruth is that theonly
power there is, is contained within this moment: It is the
power of your presence. Once you know that, you also
realize that youare responsible foryour inner spacenow—
nobodyelseis—andthatthepastcannotprevailagainstthe
poweroftheNow.

§

So identification prevents you from dealing with the pain-
body. Some women who are already conscious enough to
have relinquishedtheir victim identityon the personallevel
arestillholdingontoacollectivevictimidentity:"whatmen
did towomen."They are right — and they are also wrong.
They are right inasmuch as the collective female pain-body
is inlargepartduetomaleviolenceinflictedonwomenand
repressionofthefemaleprinciplethroughouttheplanetover
millennia.Theyarewrongiftheyderiveasenseofselffrom
this fact and thereby keep themselves imprisoned in a
collective victim identity. If a woman is still holding on to
anger,resentment,orcondemnation,sheisholdingontoher