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Training the mind...using my dog!
Hey guys, thought i would share my meditation experience from this morning.
As its well cold here atm I decided to meditate in my bedroom with my dogs in there. I was watching my breath, la la la, then suddenly one of my dogs starting bugging and licking his private parts and paws, making a very loud and awful noise. Now this noise really goes through me, and my instinct is to tell him to stop it because i hate the noise, but i decided to listen closely and figure out which part of the noise i did not like - was it the snapping of his jaw, the tongue scrapping against his skin, the sound of the wet lips snapping together...i couldn't find which part really got to me. But my god it was so bloody hard to fight the urge to open my eyes and tell the dog to stop, really, I was really fighting hard and could feel the fight between my brain, my body parts, and my determination not to give in. After 5 minutes (or was that 5 years?) he stopped, and I had remained silent and attentive - SUCCESS!
So there you go, those things that annoy you can really help you retrain your mind, and help you see how empty the annoying things are, that they are empty of anything and that you give them meaning (like me thinking the sound was annoying). Good practice.
As its well cold here atm I decided to meditate in my bedroom with my dogs in there. I was watching my breath, la la la, then suddenly one of my dogs starting bugging and licking his private parts and paws, making a very loud and awful noise. Now this noise really goes through me, and my instinct is to tell him to stop it because i hate the noise, but i decided to listen closely and figure out which part of the noise i did not like - was it the snapping of his jaw, the tongue scrapping against his skin, the sound of the wet lips snapping together...i couldn't find which part really got to me. But my god it was so bloody hard to fight the urge to open my eyes and tell the dog to stop, really, I was really fighting hard and could feel the fight between my brain, my body parts, and my determination not to give in. After 5 minutes (or was that 5 years?) he stopped, and I had remained silent and attentive - SUCCESS!
So there you go, those things that annoy you can really help you retrain your mind, and help you see how empty the annoying things are, that they are empty of anything and that you give them meaning (like me thinking the sound was annoying). Good practice.
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Comments
Exactly !!! When you truly look for and examine things they dont appear how they normally do
Love & Peace
Joe
If I could have, I would have chosen to replace it with the noise of a thousand dogs all lapping their paws and making slurping noises.
Try it with anything where you have a choice to make, go against the grain, and find out how much it annoys you.
It's a bit like that in meditation classes. There are noises outside of shouting people and car engines, noises inside of rumbling stomachs and fidgety beginners. There's your own body doing it's own thing and you're watching your breath while hoping you won't sneeze or fart. So far, nobody licking their private parts, but you can never tell what may happen next week. LOL
After a time, these things are not latched on to, they simply arise and leave without you becoming disturbed.
Once, during meditation, when there was a real commotion outside - a pub brawl, I afterwards asked the teacher what we should do if there was someone being attacked outside while we were meditating. He had no real answer.
My martial arts Sensei had a much better grasp of the situation IMHO and his advice chimed with my own thoughts: Rise calmly from meditation, deal with the violence calmly and with least harm, then when finished with that return to calm meditation.
I guess with the development of equanimity, and without anger, attachment or ignorance, all such potential distractions disappear as we simply do not allow for the thought to arise which considers them in that way. Related to another topic here, they should 'leave no trace'.
I have to close my door to meditate too because the cats will demand to come in and luckily they haven't learned how to open my closed door. (Never will, either. Cats are just too dumb that way....not like Jacks.
Its the way you raise them, my cats can open doors
And no word of a lie i swear one of them actually used the toilet when he was trapped inside :smilec:
I have my own jack-russell! They are cute
I try to put through it when my Molly licks me LOL! I'm don't mind it really but it can get annoying when you're trying to sleep! She only does it at my Grandparents' though...
Super loveable dogs. I used to have an Aussie but had to sell her two years ago. I still miss her.
Thanks, Brigid.
Sorry Emma-angel for hijacking your thread.
I guess we have a choice in regarding our closest companions as a focus for our Buddhism in cherishing and giving love, or a sign of our attachment, or an object of compassion, or a pain in the ass when we're trying to meditate.
In truth, my wife is rarely a problem when meditating, my kids used to be occasionally but are now adults, and my dogs are all of the above. I'm pretty sure they feel the same about me! LOL
To follow on from my earlier post, all of these feelings depends entirely on my attitude. We alone create our distractions, our attachments, loves and enmities.
They can open doors? Holy crap! Really?? That's fantastic. You and I need to sit down with some molten chocolate cake and coffee and get some real talking in. I'd love to hear about you and your cats.
He used the toilet?? Oh, god! Bless his wee heart! He so badly wanted to be clean and not humiliate himself by going in the house that he actually used the toilet on his own initiative.
Do you see, folks, why I love cats so much?
I know you can train cats to use the toilet but it involves putting the litter box right next to the toilet at one stage and our downstairs toilet, the only one accessible to the cats, is tucked in a little space with no room for the box. I really want to figure out how to do it though.
Your cat sounds like one of my sisters' cats. He's crazy smart. Smarter than any animal I've ever met. Sometimes when he looks at me I get goosebumps. I've subconsciously stopped thinking of him as a 'cat'. It's weird.
There's the obvious one; letting them go. I was talking about my cat Pinky a little while ago (who's doing well) and how deeply and dangerously attached to him I am. I have a lot of work to do getting it sorted out. And I know a lot of other people get very attached to their animals.
Then there's the way animals live, always fully present in the moment. And the way the cats can sit and wait for something for hours with perfect patience.
They present us with opportunities for practice and they inspire and remind us how to practice. It's so good to share our lives with them.
Oh yeah they learnt how to open doors along time ago locked doors are a problem but if a door is shut, my cats like to put their weight against them its fustrating when im sleeping as i dont have an internal lock so when he wants some attention being jumped on at 2 'o' clock in the morning aint that fun LOL.
As for the toilet well first they used the bath :eek: And then they finally got the jist again i suspect this is from how they learnt to open doors, its kind of creepy having a cat staring at you when your in the shower or even more so when your unsupectingly on the toilet...watch and learn i think LOL
May I join in too, Brigid?
For the cake, not the cats
I think this is the address on your PC. You need to open an account at Flickr or Photobucket and upload your pics onto the web. You can then paste the web address of the pics into forums - and let your friends see them as well.
Anyways... I'm off to bed so I can get up early and sort out a photobucket account, good night.
LOL
Here she is practicing her meditation.
LOL:)
Ahwww !
Regarding cats, I used to have 2 cats who would both 'shake hands' with people in the way that dogs give a paw. In fact one of them was so keen that he would follow visitors around, jump up on chairs etc and wave his paw at them until they clasped it and said 'Hello' to him!
.
That stories nice too Dazzle! Although I'm allergic to cats (there's always something :rolleyes:) and a little frightened they'll scratch me... Once a kitten jumped on my face... Ouch!...
Love & Peace
Joe
Love & Peace
Joe
Thanks for the pics!
Thanks Brigid
Love & Peace
Joe