Feeling cold, heat, hunger, overeating, weight, dizziness, migraine, dental pain, nasal congestion, sore throat, pain in the knees or lower back very directly - though not always pleasant - appear awareness.
Because pain and discomfort related to such a direct sense, they are very suitable as sites for meditative concentration.
Most of us feel the pain threatened physical well-being. On the one hand, when we worry or to fixate on the threat, the pain is almost always increased. On the other hand, if we feel pain or discomfort object of meditation, you can use these experiences to enhance the clarity, just watching how the mind deals with different solutions.
For example, if I feel pain in the legs or back, engaging in formal meditation or just sitting in the car or plane, instead of stretch, stand or walk, I learned to observe the mental experience of pain. Ultimately, it is the mental consciousness recognizes and registers the sensation. When I transfer my attention to the mind that registers pain, rather than concentrating on the sore spot, the pain does not necessarily disappear, but became an active assistant in the experience of the reality of the here and now, rather than an incentive to avoid it. The same principle holds for the pleasant experience: instead of trying to save them, I just watch them as manifestations of the experience. In essence, the very first years of practice have taught me to use the experience to explore and appreciate the immense power of the mind, instead of allowing them to impose on me a feeling of tightness disabilities.
Of course, if you feel chronic or severe pain, you should consult a doctor because these symptoms may indicate a serious health problem. However, some people have told me that when the doctor ruled out the possibility of a serious illness, the pain they are experiencing, actually disappeared. One gets the impression that fear of pain enhances soreness and "fixes" it - which can mean a self-sustaining "alarming signal" sent by the thalamus to the amygdala and other parts of the brain. But if the physician discovered serious health problem, do everything possible to follow their prescribed treatment. Although meditation can help you cope with the pain and discomfort, with a serious illness, it is no substitute for treatment.
Even taking medicines prescribed by a doctor, you can still feel some pain, and in this case, you can try to use the painful bodily sensations as a support for meditation. Regardless of whether the pain you are experiencing is a symptom of serious illness or not, using it as a support for meditation, try not to focus on the results of such practices. If your main motivation - to get rid of the pain, then in reality you will only amplify neural patterns associated with fear of pain. The best way to weaken these neural patterns - just try to watch the pain objectively, giving the results themselves.
Most of this lesson impressed me when my father had to move a small operation in Germany. Obviously, the anesthesiologist, who was to make local anesthesia the treated area, completely forgot about my father, fascinated by other things. When the surgeon made the first incision, he noticed that the muscles at the site began to decline - which, of course, should not have happened if the anesthesia was done correctly. The doctor was angry with the anesthesiologist, but his father asked him not to cause any trouble because he did not feel any pain. He explained that in fact the feeling of a cut in such a sensitive area to allow him to increase clarity and calmness of his awareness.
Put simply, through practice, my father developed a network of neural connections that are spontaneously excited by transferring the experience of pain in an objective observation of the mind, experiencing the pain. While the surgeon still insisted on re-anesthesia, before continuing the operation at the request of my father he did not make a complaint against a female anesthesiologist, which originally was supposed to make a local anesthetic.
The next day, the anesthesiologist came to my father's bed, holding something behind his back. Smiling, she thanked him for what he had saved her from harm, and then pulled out from behind a host of delicacies that her father is very pleased.
The practice of observing bodily sensations - as "rude" and "thin" - so simple that you can use it during the formal sessions of meditation, or at any time of day when you will give a few free minutes between appointments, meetings or other activities . In fact, I found that this practice is particularly useful during the day because it immediately creates a feeling of lightness and openness. Some people have told me that this practice is very useful to them at work, when I had to sit for hours listening to boring presentations.
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