With our other desires, the idea is to take note of them when they come up, and then put them aside -- let them go. The same goes with the desire to be spiritual. As Gates said the other day, and re-emphasized here, we are not our thoughts. And the same goes for our thoughts about our spiritual shortcomings.
This is a pretty simple point, but one that bears repeating. I've found this pitfall to be especially troublesome while writing this blog. To a certain extent, dwelling on my shortcomings is an essential part of this blog. Worse, some times I find myself searching for shortcomings (not that they are difficult to find) so I can have material. So, I'm thankful for this meditation. It's a nice caution for me. (And yes, oops, this paragraph may be an example of what I'm talking about ;))
2 comments:
There is a great nugget of truth, I think in this meditation: "What you resist persists." As in, those people that don't follow the dialogue; the sweat in my eyes; that $#@!
person I don't like to see. The problem is not the thing but our opinion about it. The larger the opinion (or resistance, or aversion) to the thing, the more it will never leave us. People end up being dominated by the things they resist. Yoga is great exercise in the practice of letting it all go.
Yes. The funny thing is that it's a simple and basic principle of dog training. If you want a dog to come to you, one of the best things to do is to run away from it. If you do what comes naturally, and move toward the dog, the dog will start to play chase and run away from you.
Similarly, its a mistake to try to push a dog into any position. They will resist. By trying to force a dog to go down, you actually are training its muscles to push up.
It looks like the same ideas work with people. The more we push against something, the more we simply train ourselves to push against it. And its the pushing that is the problem in the first place.
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