Meditation is one of the keys
to unlocking the natural generosity of the heart.
Underneath the greedy and selfish thoughts and feelings that are part of the human condition lies a pure desire to help.
We experience this in our mindfulness practice.
When we let go there is a natural acceptance
and feeling of care.
Noah Levine
Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles
and the water is clear?
Lao Tzu
….but like all the truths about mindfulness, it does not mean it is easy. However, it does help us to recall that meditation is a simple human capacity, not a strange esoteric exercise. It can be a useful reminder when we are busy or stressed. At times like that, the brain moves into survival mode, and increases its thinking about – and analysis of – the “problem” It becomes convinced that the best way to work with stress is to get busy and think a lot. When this happens, you can find yourself constantly replaying something in your mind or dwelling on the ins and outs of it all, even through the night. This active brain resists moments of inactivity, such as meditation, seeing it as being less useful. Ironically, it may be the most useful thing that can be done in these periods and taking the pressure off doing it, by seeing it as being as natural as breathing, can help.
Something similar to last weeks post on repeating patterns in our lives, or what Freud termed the Repetition Compulsion, where he noticed people repeating – sometimes in a disguised way – the experiences which were difficult or distressing in their earlier life. He saw that people do not necessarily remember clearly what was happening in childhood, but still act it out in relationships later, without knowing that they are repeating it. Unconscious dynamics which were formed in childhood and which were adaptive then – such as not allowing anyone get too close, or having to “make” others love them – are repeated in adulthood, even if they are self-destructive. So the past is repeated in a new form, but in the hope that this time the original wound may be healed.
On a day-to-day level this tends to manifest as the story of our life which we have allowed to take hold and which we repeat to ourselves. We can see this idea in this piece from the Tibetan Soygal Rinpoche, writing from a meditation perspective:
As we follow the teachings and we practice, we will inevitably discover certain truths about ourselves that stand out prominently: There are places where we always get stuck; there are habitual patterns and strategies which we continuously repeat and reinforce; there are particular ways of seeing things – those tired old explanations of ourselves and the world around us – that are quite mistaken yet which we hold on to as authentic, and so distort our whole view of reality.
When we persevere on the spiritual path, and examine ourselves honestly, it begins to dawn on us more and more that our perceptions are nothing more than a web of illusions. Simply to acknowledge our confusion, even though we cannot accept it completely, can bring some light of understanding and spark off in us a new process, a process of healing.
The core issue is that we are not comfortable with life as it is – changing, with indistinct boundaries, not meeting our unrealistic expectation. As children most of us learn, from parents, relatives, peers, and caregivers, to want something else, such as external approval, the security of things that don’t change, only pleasurable experiences, or the self-satisfaction of always being in the right.
We are like the drug addict looking for an unending high. We don’t find it with one drug, so we try another drug, then another and another. The variations are wonderfully creative and endless. Looking for the perfect partner, job, community, or profession, can be the drug. Looking for the perfect spiritual teacher can also be the drug. We might hop from one to another, exuberant for a while, and then disappointed. We move on.
When we walk the path of mindfulness, we are encouraged to try a radically different approach. We calm our minds, we focus on the present moment, and we embrace what we find.
Pema Chodron
Peaceful abiding describes the mind as it naturally is…
The human mind is by nature joyous, calm, and very clear. In meditation we aren’t creating a peaceful state—we’re letting our mind be as it is to begin with…
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Mindfulbalance 