Can We Process Negative Emotions By Focusing On The Breath?

[With English interpretation] Ven. Pomnyun Sunim's (법륜스님) Answer to “Can we process negative emotions by focusing on the breath?”
A question chosen from the weekly Sunday meditation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim(법륜스님).

Peace of mind is only one step away.

Transcript

In psychology, We were taught to sit with our emotions and allow ourselves to feel it. By doing this, The emotions will become weaker and we will less likely be hooked and be able to process these emotions. However, In watching a lot of your talk, Whenever negative thoughts and feelings come up, Be it a memory of the past, You mentioned we need to put a stop on it and get back to breathing. By doing this, Would this be considered a distraction and repression of our negative thoughts and feelings? How can we stay in the here and now and at the same time be able to work through these emotions so we can be healed and be able to let go of it? In psychology, We were taught to sit with our emotions and allow ourselves to feel it. However, In watching a lot of your talk, Whenever negative thoughts and feelings come up, Be it a memory of the past, You mentioned we need to put a stop on it and get back to breathing. By doing this, Would this be considered a distraction and repression of our negative thoughts and feelings? How can we stay in the here and now and at the same time be able to work through these emotions so we can be healed and be able to let go of it? Well, What the psychology teaches us has its own ground. It makes sense. When we are awake, When we open our eyes, When we keep our eyes open, It is helpful to not repress our emotions and just feel it and feel the feelings as they are. By saying that we are awake to here and now, We mean that we acknowledge and accept what we feel. However, It becomes a little different story when we meditate. When we meditate, We stop everything other than breathing in and breathing out. When we repress or when we put a stop on a feeling, Then we are making an effort. But when we meditate, We don't make any efforts. When we meditate, We are not trying to be mindful of our feelings, But we are trying to be awake and mindful of our breathing. And when it comes to the sensations or feelings, We just let them be. As if we let the wind blow from the outside of our windows. What we are trying to do is just pay attention to our breath. We are not trying to suppress the emotions. We are not trying to distract our attention away from the emotions or feelings. In other words, We are not just assigning any meanings or we do not imbue any meaning with emotions or sensations. When we say it's good or bad, When we say it's something we have to have or something we have to let go, All of those things mean that we are paying attention to them or we are just imbuing them with a meaning. Whatever sensation you feel, Be it a pain or itchiness or feeling of heat or feeling cold, Whatever that you may feel, We do not assign any meaning on it. We just don't pay attention to them. What we are doing is just paying attention to the tip of your nose and notice and be aware of your breath in and out. As you do this, The wounds of the past will just disappear like water evaporating. And while doing this, Those emotions that are suppressed or the wound from the past that you have, They become less and less strong and just dissipate as if the water evaporates into the air. This way, We can heal ourselves much better than trying to control or repress our emotions or hurts from the past. In other words, If we do not attempt to intend anything, That works much better than when we try to do something and exert efforts. Well, I do not repressing your feelings and just let them be is actually not too much different from just letting the breath be as they are. But I think that working with your breath is much more efficient and effective than working with your emotions. Let me make an analogy. Let's say we are having a nightmare and there is a burglar. And you find out that the burglar has a knife in his hand. And if we work with emotions and let those emotions as they are, Then your fear and your feeling scared will subside naturally. But working with your breath and meditation is different from this. It actually just wakes you up from the nightmare. So there is nothing to be afraid of, There is nothing to be solved, And there is nothing to be done.