Hereis a writing i did back in 2008. I felt compelled to post it here due to the amount of emails I received in regards to the chapter on The Discriminating Mind. It will likely end up somewhere in Chapter three in the final print. Enjoy!! I find that one of the greatest challenges on the spiritual path is repression. Often times when one starts down a spiritual path, one reads or studies the lives of those who have walked the path in the past. This is a wonderful way to learn about spiritual practice, yet what happens from time to time is that individual will encounter tough emotions and think this is not the spiritual way to feel or anger ( rage, sadness, depression..etc.)is wrong, this is not the way to be or if I were enlightened I wouldnt really feel this way. Not true. What is happening here is the aspirant is creating an ideal in their mind and then trying to live up to that ideal. Living up to yours or anyones ideals in inauthentic living. Not a spiritual practice at all. The path of all the worlds spiritual traditions point to one main goal: Waking up to what one is experiencing right now...and now...and now. This is done by witnessing the entire spectrum of your experience without judgement...the way a camera lens takes a photo without concentrating on one particular object in the frame, so as it is with life. To be able to take all your sensory experiences in AT ONCE, without focusing on any one sensation in particular. This is sometimes challenging to do. When we experience something that makes us uncomfortable we tend to hide from that uncomfort. Take anger,for example. One may, if that person is very uncomfortable with how that anger feels inside,react to that internal discomfort by yelling, kicking, or any other habitually ingrained reactions of violence or repression, so that the sensation of anger is numbed out. This is causing suffering all around the world. It is important not to get mired in ideas of right and wrong or should and should not. Feelings themselves are a beautiful gift to the human experience. Typically we get so caught up in running from the uncomfortable feelings and running towards those feelings which bring us comfort that we loose sight of the beauty inherent in the actual ability to experience anger, sadness, happiness, joy , beauty, etc. We get so caught up in the content of our experience that we loose the context. Not only that, but essentially it is futile to run from discomfort and seek comfort. Comfort, by its very definition, is the absence of discomfort. And vise-versa. Pain is the absence of pleasure. Pleasure is the absence of pain. They are two sides of the same coin. Fleeing pain and pursuing pleasure ( the cornerstone of recent western culture) is therefore an impossible pursuit, since they are dependant on each other for their very existence. Might as well strive for a world that is only light and no darkness, only ins with no outs, only ups with no downs. So, what to do? Develop enough attention to stay present and witness every emotion AS IT EXISTS. If we can do this, and not try to manipulate our experiences and emotions according to what we believe we should experience and what we should feel, then we are on our way to freedom. Simply witness the awesome beauty of the entire emotional landscape that is inherent in human experience. The peaks of laughter and the valleys of tears. The mountains of pride and the canyons of desire. Witness these in each experience as they arise moment to moment. The same way one would witness a flower or a sunset. In conclusion, it is not the point to witness your emotions and try to correct them according to what you think is right. The point is to be able to witness every emotion and experience as experience. We must learn to be equally comfortable with how every experience feels as it arises. Now...and now...and now. Not to repress or hide the negative, but embrace it. Not to hide from pain, but invite it in, recognizing it as the very seed of compassion.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Oct 2013 17:00:44 +0000
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