Starting with a body scan and mind scan, we start thinking about intentional vs unintentional thoughts.
Think about your room, about world issues, etc. today's mediation is about detaching yourself from the meaning you already attach to things, news, feelings, etc.
Part of today's exercise is about the absurdity of thinking that we can detach our thoughts from the world, our instant reactions to objects in our environment.
A simple example: I have a paper cut on the knuckle of my finger. Every so often, I am reminded by a dull pain, which reminds me how it happened (small accident) and both the pain, and the thought of a simple mistake that causes me pain, is a source of irritation and 'small misery over small things.' (Or perhaps a large misery over the trivial...) This sense of dull pain contributes to my life in ways that I don't always recognize. It tells me that the world is dangerous when I am thoughtless, or perhaps when I am thoughtless or uncareful, that is when accidents happened. (Followed by berating myself for such a minor but unpleasant mistake....) I cannot leave behind the thought that 'I wish I didn't have this paper cut' because the physical world and sensation of pain is part of my day-to-day experience of my body, which shapes my thoughts, which shapes my experience of a day.
This exercise to me seems to be difficult to process simply because it is easy to look at things as 'new with meaning' but it is very unlikely I am able to look at things that are 'meaningless' and think thoughts, and value those thoughts about the world meaningless as well.
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