hello.
below is a post from another internet group...in response to a post
about meditation being designed to stop thinking...the poster was
writing about how thoughts were bad, et cetera.
a LOT of westerners misinterpret zen, and buddhism in general, and
use it as another pathway for masochistic tenancies. many people
don't like themselves, and thus are attracted by the idea that
meditation could be a vehicle to eliminate their idea of themselves--
to basically kill their minds...
this will NEVER happen.
the brain, thoughts, feelings, self-images/sub self-images, et
cetera will always function in accord with certain hardwired
protocols, unless damaged by trauma. the mind is a beneficial,
beautiful, amazing thing. what causes problems isn't thinking, it's
deluded thinking; that is, our pain arises from limiting,
restrictive self-concepts. we tend to extend the past into the
present, by re-enforcing images that we develop of ourselves in
childhood. how many times have you heard someone say, "i'm no good
at this", or, "i could never do that"? how often have we agonized
over events long gone? we develop fear of failure that keeps us
small, we become susceptible to despair and give up on our dreams,
and ourselves....we tell ourselves "i can't" automatically, before
we even try...we judge ourselves harshly, confusing behaviors that
we engaged in for who we really are...
all ideas about ourselves are simply conditioned responses to
stimuli--they are learned behaviors, neural pathways in the brain
and nervous system...but, just as we learned them, we can learn new
behaviors--we can RADICALLY alter our self-images, our opinions
about what we can do and learn...just as we formed our self-ideas
through repetition or high energy events, we can use the same
techniques to learn new ideas...i KNOW this, i've done it myself,
i've seen many others do so, too...it's easy, it just takes
commitment, discipline, and persistence.
we can live lives FAR greater than we ever thought possible.
we CAN realize our dreams--we CAN develop aim, purpose, persistence,
creativity....we can develop any quality that we desire, through
repetition, fueled by emotion and desire.
when we cast off the bonds of our self-limiting beliefs, fears, and
behaviors, we begin to see that the vast majority of obstacles in
our lives were simply automatic responses in our minds.
our minds are good--they enable us to think, plan, decide, and take
action....thinking allows for an appreciation of life far beyond
that of the sensory...the sensory is wonder-full, most certainly,
and it is important to use that aspect of our makeup frequently.
but without our minds, our thinking, we couldn't exercise the power
of CONSCIOUS CHOICE...we couldn't plan, create, laugh, love, or
evolve.
please--love your minds--love yourselves--don't desire to destroy
any part of you...everything that has happened to us in our lives
has been PERFECT, because it's brought us to this moment--and in
this moment we have the power to decide, to quite literally create
ourselves in any way we see fit...
we are each so very important--our lives are important, our
decisions are important....our thinking can cause us suffering, yes--
-but it is our thinking that will set us free, when we act with
conscious decision, with freedom and flexibility in the moment. if
we just concentrate on being sensory-based, when our thoughts return-
-and they do return, the brain/neural net IS going to think, that's
what it does--then we're right back where we were. sensory
experiences, beautiful though they are, shouldn't be used as a means
to escape ourselves....sitting meditation is a tool to unite us
internally--not so that we quit thinking--but so that we reset our
nervous systems, release traumas stored in the body (character
armor, dural tube adhesions, etc), and learn to create gaps between
stimuli and conditioned reactions--that is, to slow the reaction
process so that we may exercise choice in the moment, instead of
reacting on autopilot...so that we can respond from where we want to
be, rather than from where we've always been.
my daughter calls--time to go.
bret stalcup
www.powerzen.org
Current Book Discussion: Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi
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