Meditation

I've continued listening to the Pema Chodron Audio Collection and it continues to be both very calming and insightful. All the things I'm learning seem to be very logical. It's almost like if I meditated for 100 years and reflected on all that I've learnt then this is what I would come up with. So without further to do - lets briefly review what I've learnt these past two days.

Expecting Struggle
I guess most people (including me) think that if you meditate it becomes easy. As you work your way up it should get easier and easier until one day you reach mythical enlightenment  and meditation becomes a crystal clear space within you. Thinking this way is a sure way to set yourself up for discouragement.

On the contrary, you should expect struggle. Well maybe you shouldn't expect struggle so deliberately otherwise that is just another thing to worry about. But when it does come it shouldn't be a surprise and it should be like any other thought/dream that you gently let go of. I'm referring to struggle here very loosely but Pema talked about more specific struggles so I'll review some of those too.

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Not saying 'POT!'
I wasn't sure how to title this section so I've given it that title and it should become clearer as you read further on. Pema talked about a problem she encountered while meditating and that was being sleepy. She would sit down to meditate and become very drowsy and instead lie down and have a nap.

I'm guessing this happened a decent amount because she asked a famous yogi (whose name I have forgotten) how to fight drowsiness while meditating and this was his advice: "say 'POT!'". So she tried it and it worked, she no longer felt drowsy. Once again she went back to her meditation practice and of course once the alertness from saying pot before wore off she became drowsy again.

This time she knew what to do. She could just say pot and she would be able to stay awake, but as easy as it was she thought 'I don't want to say pot, I want to sleep'. So instead she lay down and slept. The morale of this story is that the 'I don't want to say pot' thought is just a thought, just a dream. If you continue with meditation then you will come to something similar and what you should do is not be surprised. Just breath out thinking 'thought' and let it go.

Being in the moment
Pema told a story she had heard going around about a man from a culture who had a certain belief about what happens when you die. They believed that when you die you go through lots of tunnels until you finally reach the ocean at which point you will have reached the afterlife. Anyway this man somehow fell into a coma and was sent to a nearby hospital, but the hospital wasn't advanced enough so they sent him away to a bigger city with a better hospital.

He was sent on a train and on the train he passed through many tunnels after which he reached the ocean. I guess he must have been conscious at that point but I forgot exactly how it happened so you'll have to forgive me. Well he recovered but he believed that he was dead because of the way he got to his new location.

That man lived the rest of his life believing he was dead. He was a grown up man who behaved like a child because he never thought 'I know what this is'. Instead he thought 'So this is what the afterlife is like?'. He was hugely curious and lived completely in the moment - this is what we should aim for.