[Julik19]

I thought that this short article might be helpful for meditators.


The Inner Investigation

by Joseph Goldstein

"We can start the practice of mindfulness meditation with the simple observation and feeling of each breath. Breathing in, we know we’re breathing in; breathing out, we know we’re breathing out. It’s very simple, although not easy. After just a few breaths, we hop on trains of association, getting lost in plans, memories,judgments, and fantasies. This habit of wandering mind is very strong, even though our reveries are often not pleasant and sometimes not even true. As Mark Twain so aptly put it, “Some of the worst things in my life never happened.” So we need to train our minds, coming back again and again to the breath,simply beginning again.

Slowly, though, our minds steady and we begin to experience some space of inner calm and peace. This environment of inner stillness makes possible a deeper investigation of our thoughts and emotions. What is a thought—that strange, ephemeral phenomenon that can so dominate our lives? When we look directly at a thought, we see that it is little more than nothing. Yet when it is unnoticed, it wields tremendous power. Notice the difference between being lost in a thought and being mindful that we’re thinking. Becoming aware of the thought is like waking up from a dream or coming out of a movie theater after being absorbed in the story. Through mindfulness, we gradually awaken from the movies of our minds.

What, too, is the nature of emotions—those powerful energies that sweep over our bodies and minds like great breaking waves? In a surprising way, mindfulness and the investigation of emotions begin to deepen our understanding of selflessness; we see that the emotions themselves arise out of conditions and pass away as the conditions change, like clouds forming and dissolving in the clear open sky.

As the Buddha said to his son, Rahula, “You should consider all phenomena with proper wisdom: ‘This is not mine, this is not I, this is not myself.’”

On the subtlest level, we learn not to identify with consciousness itself, cutting through any sense of this knowing faculty as being “I” or “mine.” As a way of cultivating this radical transformation of understanding, I have found it useful to reframe meditation experience in the passive voice; for example, the breath being known, sensations being known, thoughts being known. This language construction takes the “I” out of the picture and opens us to the question, “Known by what?” And rather than jumping in with a conceptual response, the question can lead us to experience directly the unfolding mystery of awareness, moment after moment."

[Pippoles]

That's beautifully put, being mindful of our thoughts is like waking from a dream.

[UKkoXJvF]

In a surprising way, mindfulness and the investigation of emotions begin to deepen our understanding of selflessness; we see that the emotions themselves arise out of conditions and pass away as the conditions change, like clouds forming and dissolving in the clear open sky.

It just occurred to me when I read this, we are not in control of how we feel as much as we like to believe we are. What if there is a chemical imbalance in your brain which causes certain unpleasant emotions to arise again and again. Just like a wound causes you pain this is also caused due to physical conditions. When physical conditions are rectified through medication (injecting chemicals to balance out the imbalance) the emotions change. We have very little control over out body or our emotions afterall

[usadatronourl]

Deshy- this is of utmost importance in the coming years, whether or not we have control over our emotions. Consider the meteoric rise of anti-depressants and other mood-elevators, the psychiatric community is banking on the idea that we believe THEY can help control our emotions. First, we have this squishy, "bad" feeling that we can't pin down, and commercials are right there to fill in the gaps. We're told over and over that we simply can't live with these bad moods, and that they are destructive and must be eradicated. Psychosis is real, but not to the extent that a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company wants us to believe.

What people don't realize is that, even with medication, these states of mind are held closely, and remain unchanged if the person identifies with that mood. People will use their bad mood as a way of trying to maybe excuse behavior, as if they have no choice. Once labeled as "I'm depressed" or "I'm always scattered" etc., it is hard to shake it. Then we feel as if we definitely have no control, and are chained to this state of mind permanently unless we act on it chemically.

Watching members of my own family "struggle" as they would say with depression and anxiety, I know for certain that there is very little inner investigation that accompanies the medication. There is no money in a cure, so psychiatry, as far as what I have seen, is not in business to help people actually confront those "bad" feelings, but gives them a sense that they are doing something by taking their meds every day. It also sets up a way for the "patient" to become almost blameless by making them think that they are doing the right thing and trying to get well, and that the rest of us are to excuse their behavior because they're "sick". But if you ask them what they're doing besides medication to relieve their depression or anxiety, it is often met with defensiveness and anger. People are being conditioned to believe that their minds really are out of control and must be "fixed" with the med du jour.

Wow, apologies for hijacking this thread with a bunch of personal stuff, it hits very close to home and is a source of my own suffering, seeing members of my family continue to live so miserably when the source of their healing is inside. It is very frustrating to talk to someone close to me about meditation instead of medication, and being met with angry resistance, as if meditation is something crazy and chemicals are completely trustworthy.
Peace to all who struggle with this, whether it be their own or someone close.


Edited by Admin to create spacing.

[golozhopik]

it hits very close to home

Which is exactly the impression I got by reading your long post before comming to this line. It looks to me like you are talking with so much anguish inside.

Well from what I know there are many causes to mental conditions such as anxiety/depression. Some causes are purely genetics and physical. A person does not choose to have anxiety or depression thus choosing to be otherwise mostly turn out feeling like forced and deliberate. If your reasoning is correct then CBT should be a wonderful way of dealing with depression/anxiety. I am not saying there is no chance there but certainly physical conditions cause moods whether we like it or not. However you can choose how to act on those moods. Just like a wound is going to cause pain even though you choose not to cry out loud.