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Repression vs transformation

zenguitarzenguitar Bad BuddhistNew England Veteran

Greetings, wise Sangha. I have a question about meditation and how it deals with negative emotions. If I feel, say, anger or anxiety, I try to handle this by deep breathing while focusing on the breath for a few minutes. And the technique often works; the negative emotion subsides over time, and I feel better.

But a few days later, when the same trigger situation occurs, I find I often respond with the same negative emotion, at the same level of intensity. So I wonder if my meditation practice is just repressing the bad emotion, that is, pushing it back into the subconscious mind so it can rear its ugly head again later, rather than eliminating or transforming it.

It's a little frustrating to me since sometimes I feel I'm not really progressing on the path, just treading water.

Any advice? Perhaps I am just meditating incorrectly? I look forward to hearing your insights.

Comments

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited July 2014

    How long have you been meditating?

    How long have you been having these emotions?
    If there is a great disparity between one action and the other (ie, you have been meditating for less time than you have been experiencing the emotions) is it any wonder it takes time?

    As the young novice priest once said "Good Lord God, grant me patience - but fer chrissakes, hurry up!"

    The fact that you are AWARE of the arising and the processing, means your mind is coming round to the consideration that control is required.

    The next time you feel such an emotion welling up - take a rubber band, place it round your wrist - and snap it, hard.
    That will bring you back to the present pretty damn sharpish.

    After a while, your own thought-processes will apply the 'snap'....

    zenguitarVastmindBuddhadragonJeffrey
  • zenguitarzenguitar Bad Buddhist New England Veteran

    Good point and good idea, @federica.

  • HamsakaHamsaka goosewhisperer Polishing the 'just so' Veteran

    @zenguitar, your OP is for all of us :)

    The assumption is somehow, Buddhism (if we do it right) will vaporize our negative experiences, feelings, emotions and soon we'll have that sweet little Buddha smile plastered to our lips, negative emotions bouncing off of us right, left and center. OK, that was my initial assumption :D

    @Taiyaki's post is a more experienced version of what I'm coming to understand. Your post is beautiful T, and I really needed to hear this today :)

    We don't repress the negative stuff nor does it bounce off our our Buddhist Teflon armor. It is a whole different relationship to the 'negative' stuff that happens.

    Buddhadragonlobster
  • zenguitarzenguitar Bad Buddhist New England Veteran

    Thanks everyone, I guess I had been hoping (naively) that meditation would make the negative emotions simply go away. I guess a wiser view is that meditation helps us to better attend to and understand (and care for) those emotions. But I still need to internalize that wisdom in my life. :)

    lobsterJeffreyBuddhadragon
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran

    Pema Chodron says in book on meditation that it is 5 things: being a friend to yourself, seeing what is there, sitting with difficult states, being present, and making no big deal of it.

    ShoshinlobsterBuddhadragon
  • lobsterlobster Veteran

    @zenguitar said:
    But I still need to internalize that wisdom in my life. :)

    Mr Cushion is your friend.

    zenguitar
  • CittaCitta Veteran

    @zenguitar said:
    Greetings, wise Sangha. I have a question about meditation and how it deals with negative emotions. If I feel, say, anger or anxiety, I try to handle this by deep breathing while focusing on the breath for a few minutes. And the technique often works; the negative emotion subsides over time, and I feel better.

    But a few days later, when the same trigger situation occurs, I find I often respond with the same negative emotion, at the same level of intensity. So I wonder if my meditation practice is just repressing the bad emotion, that is, pushing it back into the subconscious mind so it can rear its ugly head again later, rather than eliminating or transforming it.

    It's a little frustrating to me since sometimes I feel I'm not really progressing on the path, just treading water.

    Any advice? Perhaps I am just meditating incorrectly? I look forward to hearing your insights.

    See, I think all we moderns have half absorbed Dr Freud with his theory of some entity called a subconscious...
    What if it doesn't really work like that ?

    I think that the reality is it takes a long time, that the old conditioned responses keep on surfacing long after the original reason has passed.

    And we need to sit with them, and recognise them as old ghosts...

    BuddhadragonzenguitarJeffrey
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @zenguitar said:
    Any advice? Perhaps I am just meditating incorrectly? I look forward to hearing your insights.

    I don't think so. The scriptures say that only enlightenment can actually remove these defilements so that they don't resurface. For example, only a "non-returner" is actually freed from ill-will. Suppression of the defilements is used to make the mind temporarily clear and calm. With that clarity, then one can investigate them, understand them and finally be rid of them.

    A lot of the instruction on jhana and samadhi talk about suppression vs transformation. Suppression is not a bad thing, it helps you attain wisdom.

    That's why the Buddhist path is 3 fold path. Sila, Samadhi and Pranja. Samadhi supresses, Pranja transforms.

    This is a good description IMO. :)

    The meditator uses the jhāna state to bring the mind to rest, and to strengthen and sharpen the mind, in order to investigate the true nature of phenomena (dhamma) and to gain higher knowledge. The longer the meditator stays in the state of jhāna the sharper and more powerful the mind becomes.

    As the five hindrances may be suppressed for days after entering jhāna, the meditator will feel perfectly clear, mindful, full of compassion, peaceful and light after the meditation session. This, according to Ajahn Brahm, may cause some meditators to mistakenly assume that they have gained enlightenment.

    The jhāna state cannot by itself lead to enlightenment as it only suppresses the defilements. Meditators must use the jhāna state as an instrument for developing wisdom by cultivating insight and use it to penetrate the true nature of phenomena through direct cognition, which will lead to cutting off the defilements and nibbana.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhyāna_in_Buddhism

    zenguitarlobster
  • zenguitarzenguitar Bad Buddhist New England Veteran

    Thanks, this is good information. Though I think there is something like a "subconscious" in Buddhism, @citta, called the seed consciousness? Though I could be wrong.

  • CittaCitta Veteran
    edited July 2014

    @zenguitar said:
    Thanks, this is good information. Though I think there is something like a "subconscious" in Buddhism, citta, called the seed consciousness? Though I could be wrong.

    There is @zenguitar , its called alaya vijnana in Sanskrit.

    It seems to me though that it differs in some important regards from Freud's subconscious

    I will come back to it when I have time to do it justice..

    _/_

  • Even though I am not as well read or educated in Buddhist thought as many here, but in a practical sense, I have discovered that resisting the urge to suppress, has a very behavioral aspect to it. When we relate to our own emotions in a patient, kind, accepting and compassionate way, we are learning to relate to life in a patient, kind, accepting and compassionate way.

    The lessons I learn when resisting urges to suppress emotions, takes me towards inner peace and acceptance. Abiding by my worrisome emotions with kindness, patience and understanding, transforms me to a better person. A person less prone to judgement and condemnation and a person open to recognizing the beauty in everything.

    If the purpose of my practice is to make worrisome emotions go away, I am cheating myself of all of the benefit of seeing the world as the beautiful place it is.

    zenguitarlobsterBuddhadragon
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