Pema Chodron - First Experience

Well I've finished my degree which was the most stressful part of my life to date and you'd think I would be on top of the world right now, but that definitely hasn't been the case lately. It seems like life will always have things to throw at you be they family matters, relationship drama, financial/work issues or bad health - the list goes on. So when I was listening to Tim Ferriss interview Seth Godin the other day and he said that the Pema Chodron audio collection are great for dealing with stress it piqued my interest. Not to mention I've been meaning to get Tim's books for ages from audible.com and I finally got around to it this morning.

I ended up signing up for the membership which gives you one audio-book every month with the first month being free. I bought the 4 hour work week and the 4 hour body because they were on sale and with my monthly credit I bought the Pema Chodron audio collection. So far I have listened to the first chapter which went for half an hour and I feel pretty happy with my purchase!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Pema-Chodron-Audio-Collection/dp/1591791596

It has detailed the basics of her style of meditation and I just want to summarize the main points. She talked about having a friendly outlook when meditating and at first I thought she was only relating that to humans but later she elaborated and stated that it was a friendly outlook to all things in general (I think). This includes your own thoughts, worries, pains, and goings on of the world.

This idea is so simple and  yet so brilliant. It feels like all the meditation I have done in the past has mostly been a waste, although I have felt some benefit before I sense that I could have gotten so much more out of it if I had known this sooner. Previously I would focus on stilling my mind, erasing all thoughts as soon as they appeared. In contrast Pema teaches to gently let go of the thoughts, but the major difference is practicing something rather than just erasing something.

If I build up friendliness to all things then I am creating change within myself rather than just getting rid of thoughts. It's as if before, if my mind was a blackboard I was just dusting it clear but this way I am drawing out who I want to be. I guess that is what comes of being stubborn and trying to reinvent the wheel of meditation, rather than learning from others.

Pema also went into detail on how to hold your body and what to do physically but they aren't very interesting, so I'll talk about the more thought provoking topics such as how she talked about thoughts. She described thoughts as being similar to dreams in that they are only as real as you let them be. Thoughts can be utterly debilitating. We can trap ourselves inside a web of dreams with all the crazy thoughts we have running around inside our heads. When you realize that your thoughts are only thoughts or dreams and all the stress and anxiety you may feel from them is a part of that dream it becomes much easier to deal with them.

That leads on to another idea she presented. That things don't matter as much as they seem. You can acknowledge things for what they are but don't blow them out of proportion. I recognize now that that is what I'm always doing. Every little worry I have has been exaggerated so that one thing that should probably only be a concern became something that I agonized over.

Jesus says in the bible also not to worry and that's all well and good but things like giving all your worries to God through prayer have never really worked for me. That's why meditation like this is so good - you are actively creating someone who doesn't worry. So I'll keep it up and hopefully I can be someone who doesn't worry so much!