Thangka Art - Yama and "The King of Pain"

"Every day people go to the Kingdom of Yama (Death), and yet people still believe this will not happen to them as well. In a world which is fleeting they seek a stable joy. Trapped in a cycle of suffering they seek happiness. That is the greatest wonder of all."

(From the Hindu Texts)

There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out/
There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt/
There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed/
There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread/
King of pain

"Essentially, while no one likes pain, we pay close attention to pain. So the pain and stress receives more cognitive processing. This is very much a downward mental spiral. Now, the law of attraction basically means that if I am “thinking” about pain while in “emotional” trance which is generally what pain generates, I attract those very things to me. Doesn’t this seem to be what happens? Once you start down that spiral, it gets increasing difficult to break out of it. More and more stuff happens and more and more mental energy is dedicated to the stress or pain of the situation. After a while, there is little mental energy left to think about things not related to the situation." (Vitmus)

"The goal of Yoga is to remove the causes of pain before it is formed."
(One of the many translations to the Sadhana Pada Sutra of Patanjali. Chapter 16).