Sometimes during meditation we're paying specific attention and we become aware of all the things arising and the things that are that are arising are different to our normal,
Right?
We're going deep or we're allowing deeper level things to pop up and it can be confronting,
It can be different,
It can be overwhelming and you know I'll pull from this concept the practice of Vipassana.
Vipassana is like mindfulness plus.
I like it because it gets you to focus on the breath but then it gets you to focus on the different aspects of the body and there's sort of a deep I guess sort of mythology isn't the right word but process and sort of internal belief system around what Vipassana is and what it does but ostensibly you are being mindful and you're scanning the body mindfully just feeling what's arising in the body that is the practice of Vipassana.
The reason I say that is is that because when you're doing that you'll notice that as you're scanning the body different things pop up,
Deep thoughts,
Confronting thoughts,
Past stuff that you thought you'd let go of.
It all comes back and the Vipassana's response is that we're sort of holding on to tensions,
We're holding on to energies,
We're holding on to something and the act of meditation allows us to release,
Allows us to let go and you know that's the practice.
You meditate and you scan and then you release.
I think the similar thing sort of happens with just straight mindfulness meditation.
You're doing something with your mind that you know I wouldn't like I would like to say is not natural.
It is deeply natural but it's not natural to us particularly in a modern state.
It is not really normal to sit and just focus the mind and if we're new to this practice we'll start responding to it.
Our mind isn't used to being contained upon an anchor.
It's used to just doing what it's doing and as you start to become aware it's like hey yeah I see you there,
Back to the breath.
Oh mind's wandered again,
Back to the breath.
It will start to throw up things to stop you.
There's a traditional analogy that some people really pull back against but I'll use it because it's sort of in the in the texts that you read they use this analogy a lot.
The idea is taming the elephant.
If you were to tame an elephant to you know work the farm,
To do the work you know and this is any animal.
First you capture the animal and then you begin to tame it.
It's tied to a pole and you feed it.
It initially thrashes,
It initially tries to escape understandably.
This would be the same thing with a horse,
The same thing with any animal,
The same thing with the mind right.
It initially starts to thrash,
It initially starts to pull away,
It initially starts to do something.
It will try whatever it can to escape but over time you feed it,
You bring it back and it realizes that hey this is actually safe,
We're actually calm here,
We're actually you know getting trained.
But with the mind it will try its best to escape the confines that we're putting it in.
You're pulling your mind back to the breath again and again and again and again and initially it will bounce to different things.
It will bounce to just distraction,
Surface level.
When that doesn't work what can it go to?
It goes to painful memories,
To traumas.
If that doesn't work it'll go to pleasurable feelings.
Hey you're trying to contain me on the breath,
Let's see if you get lost in pleasure right.
Sometimes you'll be meditating and like a nice feeling will come.
When that comes you should nonetheless respond.
Okay cool,
Pleasure,
Back to the breath.
Then it might respond with sleepiness or tiredness.
It's like okay you've dealt with chaos,
You've dealt with pain,
You've dealt with pleasure,
How do you deal with tiredness?
Okay you're dealing with tiredness,
Recognize the tiredness,
Back to the breath.
Oh okay what about esoteric philosophy right.
It'll throw up all of this sort of stuff which is why this idea of labeling is good.
It's like oh okay pain,
Bring it back.
Pleasure,
Bring it back.
Tiredness,
Bring it back.
Philosophy,
Bring it back right.
It's all your mind trying to escape the confines that you're putting it in.
That language like the analogy of you know taming the elephant or taming the animal is a little bit confronting and it's not the best analogy.
It's not a straight analogy but it definitely does work.
We're trying to change the nature of our mind.
It wants to bounce and move around and do what it's doing and we're saying no.
Back to the breath buddy.
With love,
With compassion,
We're not being cruel when we're training.
The same thing with this analogy,
We're not being cruel training the animal right but we are going to make it so our mind works for us,
Helps us to exist in this world.
Our mind wanders,
It tries to escape our taming attempts,
We bring it back to the breath with love.
And you might find that past memories pop up and you know this is sort of going away from pure mindfulness into self-healing,
Into inner work,
Into past work or shadow work or inner child work.
But if things start to pop up and you find that you're sort of caught on certain memories or there is a deep trauma memory that pops up,
That's something to do deeper work with and perhaps you know alongside mindfulness.
So I'm going to do a little bit more of that You do your mindfulness but then you take that to a therapist or you take that to a practitioner or you explore that with compassionate curiosity and calm confidence.
You find where those memories are located in the body and what they want to share and what they want to tell.
But the ability to do that work is itself predicated on the ability to be mindful in response to what applies.
