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.

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!