Pain : Inconvenient Truth

The nails which are the hardest to cut are those of my two big toes, which tend to grow inwards into the flesh. Because they can be difficult to cut, I tend to cut them less frequently, while I trim all my other nails regularly – on both hands and legs. I usually trim the two toes only when I feel a slight soreness where they are while walking – which is a sign that they have dug into the flesh a little too much. I would use the end of a nail file to pry the nails’ corners out a little for a better grip on them, so as to cut them properly. It’s not as painful or disgusting as it sounds, and there’s no blood… at least not usually!

This is really a symptom of ‘inverted-thinking’ – as the fact that they tend to be ingrowing should mean that I maintain them more frequently; not less out of fretting at the hassle. There is the twisted thinking that ‘Since they’re hard to cut, let there be more major pain first. If not, there’s no reason to go through the minor pains of cutting them.’ This is one of those ‘inconvenient truths’ of life – that we tend to avoid what we dislike; when we often should not procrastinate in facing them, to get them over with… before it leads to worse situations.

Spiritually speaking, in terms of the practice of Right Effort in the Noble Eightfold Path, there are wholesome thoughts we should create, maintain and nurture as soon as possible; just as there are unwholesome thoughts we should not hesitate to sever immediately, and to ensure no new ones arise. This is connected to worldly matters too. For instance, the case of repeated ignoring of the ingrowing toenails is linked to letting unskilful thoughts of laziness fester, which lead to suffering. By the way, ingrowing nails can become really serious. I had a classmate who once came to school with a bandaged toe. It turned out that he had ignored an ingrowing toenail for much too long – till he had to go through some surgery to trim it!