Awkward Path to Peace, Equanimity & Joy

     If you're seriously committed to meditation practice, your noble quest to see clearly and find peace, equanimity & joy independent of circumstances might be smooth & easy, but more likely will have some ups & downs.

     “Depending upon various factors – such as psychological disposition, early conditioning, genetics, random chance – some people experience significant instability along the journey from surface to Source.

     Understand that your ordinary ordering principle is being ripped away – the body cannot get comfortable, the mind cannot get answers – but a new ordering principle, which is much deeper, is in the process of revealing itself.

     The awkward intermediate zone is a stage that some meditators pass through wherein the old coping mechanism (tighten up & turn away) is in the process of being shed, but the new coping mechanism (open up & turn toward) is not yet strong enough to provide abiding safety and fulfillment.” 
       Shinzen Young. “The Science of Enlightenment. How Meditation Works.” Sounds True, 2016. 
 

Approaching & Staying With vs Avoidance

     “Relaxing, we do not turn away from the tension and conditioning. When we stay with them, it becomes possible to apprehend the silence that underlies reactivity. 
     … when stillness meets reactivity, unbinding occurs. The karmic pattern that generated the reaction is interrupted, cut off from its source. Unfed, the energy drains out of the reaction. In the brain … the neural networks of stress defuse.”
 
       Kramer G. “Insight dialogue. The interpersonal path to freedom.” Shambhala, Boston, 2007.

João Carlos Nascimento   www.dpreview.com

Patience - Makes Severe Challenges Workable

       “Patience is the capacity to welcome difficulty when it comes, with a spirit of strength, endurance, forbearance, and dignity rather than fear, anxiety, and avoidance. None of us likes to be oppressed or defeated, yet if we can endure oppression and defeat with strength, without whining, we are ennobled by it. Patience makes this possible. In our culture, we think of patience as passive and unglamorous; other qualities like love or compassion or insight are much more popular. But when tough times cause our love to fray into annoyance, our compassion to be overwhelmed by our fear, and our insight to evaporate, then patience begins to make sense. To me it is the most substantial, most serviceable, and most reliable of all spiritual qualities. Without it, all other qualities are shaky.”

       Norman Fischer, Shambhala Sun, March 2013

Photo: Charles Baxter   www.dpreview.com

 

Physical Processing & Neuroscience

     "primates have a distinct cortical image of homeostatic afferent activity that reflects all aspects of the physiological condition of all tissues of the body. This interoceptive system, associated with autonomic motor control, is distinct from the exteroceptive system (cutaneous mechanoreception and proprioception) that guides somatic motor activity. The primary interoceptive representation in the dorsal posterior insula engenders distinct highly resolved feelings from the body that include pain, temperature, itch, sensual touch, muscular and visceral sensations, vasomotor activity, hunger, thirst, and 'air hunger'. In humans, a meta-representation of the primary interoceptive activity is engendered in the right anterior insula, which seems to provide the basis for the subjective image of the material self as a feeling (sentient) entity, that is, emotional awareness." 
     Craig AD. Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2003; 13(4): 500-5.

     Anxiety sensitivity (AS) ... is the fear of arousal-related sensations, arising from beliefs that the sensations may have harmful physical, social, or psychological consequences. AS is composed of 3 (or 4) dimensions: 
• fear of physical sensations, 
• fear of cognitive dyscontrol,
• fear of publicly observable anxiety reactions ±
• fear of respiratory sensations. 

     AS is a potential common vulnerability factor in PTSD & chronic pain.
     "Interoceptive exposure (IE) is among the most effective methods for decreasing AS. IE involves exposure to feared bodily sensations through harmless, brief exercises (e.g. repeatedly hyperventilating). Through repeated exposure to these sensations, patients learn that the sensations do not lead to catastrophic outcomes, and thus their AS abates." 
       Wald J et al. Posttraumatic stress disorder and chronic pain arising from motor vehicle accidents: efficacy of interoceptive exposure plus trauma-related exposure therapy. Cogn Behav Ther 2010; 39(2): 104-13.

     "Approaching the pain itself, wherever it is most prominent in the body, with bare attention, open-heartedness, and alert interest even for very brief moments, if that is all that we can muster in any moment, can be profoundly healing, restorative, and illuminating. And if practiced over days, weeks, and months, potentially it can make a difference in the quality of your life for years and years going forward. What we are talking about is really befriending your experience at the level of the body and at the level of the mind and heart, and seeing what unfolds.”                           Jon Kabat-Zinn 
       Gardner-Nix, J. “The mindfulness solution to pain. Step-by-step techniques for chronic pain management.” New Harbinger Publications Inc, Oakland CA, 2009.

Photo: Janolus   www.dpreview.com

 

Just This Moment - as it Actually Is - OR - Perseverative Cognition

     “… it takes a bit of meditative presence to be with what is – just as it is – without being distracted by all the evaluations and comments that habitually arise about our situation. We suffer more from our stories than from the actual situation as it is.”         Toni Packer 

     “My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes – most of which have never happened.”        Mark Twain


Perseverative Cognition: Brosschot JF, Verkuil B, Thayer JF. Conscious and unconscious perseverative cognition: is a large part of prolonged physiological activity due to unconscious stress? J Psychosom Res. 2010; 69(4): 407-16.
Psychology of Stress: http://www.guidetopsychology.com/stress.htm

Montreal, Canada

 

Increasing Degrees of Friendly Acceptance

     “… psychological health involves a skillful balance between goal-oriented effort & acceptance …

      … we compound our suffering by trying to avoid (what we fear). …

      Mindfulness is a technology for gradually turning … attention toward the fear as it is happening, exploring it in detail with increasing degrees of friendly acceptance.”

      Germer CK, Siegel RD, Fulton PR eds. “Mindfulness and Psychotherapy.” The Guilford Press, NY, 2005.

View from Luckett Vineyards, Gaspereau Valley, Nova Scotia

Vedana - 2,500 years Ahead of Neuroscience

     "There are three kinds of vedana (feeling or sensation of mind, not body) - pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. ... the root meaning of the word vedana is 'experience,' moment after moment. In response to different forms of contact (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, mental) with objects (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, thought), a feeling arises. When it is pleasant, greed and attachment are likely to follow. When it is unpleasant, aversion is liable to arise, and thus condemnation. Lastly, a neutral sensation generally precipitates delusion because it often does not make enough of an impression on the mind and thus is not observed or understood clearly; that is, there is no mindful awareness.

     'These are the three roots of all evils: Greed brings attachment; aversion brings hatred; delusion brings more ignorance ... Greed will not allow you to give, to share. The positive side, nongreed, becomes dana - you can share, you can give.'  And dana ... whether small or large, as long as it is given with sincere intention, purifies the mind of greed."

        Knaster M. "Living this life fully. Stories and teachings of Munindra." Shambhala, Boston, 2010.

     An overlapping perspective on this phenomenon is the Western psychology's "approach-avoidance dichotomy" - search for "approach" on: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/

     A third overlapping perspective on this phenomenon is neuroscience's primitive brain stem, its influence on our perception, which in turn promotes reptilian reactivity (as opposed to well-considered executive control). Search the above blogsite for "brain stem."
 

Buddha at IMS, Barre MA   http://www.dharma.org/

Relating to liminality

     Liminality: "a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the 'threshold' of or between two different existential planes" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality 

     To successfully negotiate each transition, I need to fully engage. My whole self – mind, emotions and body – needs to step with both feet, from my comfort zone, into a new unfamiliar land - and stay to acclimatize. I am thereby transformed - with a more accurate self-image and worldview.  

“Confess your hidden faults.

Approach what you find repulsive.
Help those you think you cannot help.
Anything you are attached to, let it go.
Go to places that scare you.”

     - advice from her teacher to the Tibetan yogini Machik Labdron 

     Chodron P. “The places that scare you. A guide to fearlessness in difficult times.” Shambhala, Boston, 2002.

     See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/06/liminality-insight-into-emptiness.html
     and: http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/03/liminality.html

Photo: Gundoctor   www.dpreview.com