Unusual meditation issue

ThomB

I have multiple physical ailments I live with and deal with. Surgery next week for a bad elbow. Today I was meditating in order to clear my head and center myself. Then other ailments decided to kick in. I have Barrett's esophagus, you'll need to Google that, stomach erosion and colitis. At any rate as I was breathing peacefully my stomach decided to start growling loud enough to wake the dead. I stuck with it and focused on feeling the breath moving through me but was half tempted to tell my body to shut up! So what does one do in a case like that. Also any positive energy that could be sent my way would be appreciated. This will be surgery number 8 in my life. Number 7, 4 1/2 years ago was brain surgery for an aneurysm so I guess elbow surgery is small potatoes!

fivebells

Hi, @ThomB. What kind of meditation do you/were you doing at the time?

MaryAnne

Hi @ThomB

Hope you're feeling better soon. Good vibes and positive thoughts sent your way!
Check in again when you're up to it and keep us in the loop, ok?

ThomB

Five bells, just breathing and being. I'm new at this. I'm a Christabuddist or a Buddachrist. Haven't quite figured it out yet.

federica

Hi @ThomB, Hope all goes well with you.
Haven't had a chance to research your condition (Shall Google) but there's no point fighting it, or even focusing on it. Accept it, note it and let it go.

sova

Think healthy! **bzznznzn positive vibrations**

When I have personal ailments ( physical and emotional ) I find metta meditation to be incredibly valuable. It's rather against the grain to wish someone well while you yourself are suffering, but the practice is medicine.

There's a guided Metta meditation I like on youtube, here is a link, may it be of benefit



Also, Dharmaseed.org has tons of awesome talks, from retreats and other assemblies, that you may find helpful along the way

many good vibes man, we're rootinz for you

federica

Ok... take antacid medication, and drink a glass of milk?

Do you smoke?
Are you... a little...overweight....?

karasti

It sounds like you are fairly new to meditation? Make sure you do it on a daily basis if at all possible. The benefits are far greater that way. Training your mind is not unlike potty training a puppy. You have to be consistent to see results, especially if you want results when you most need them. You might experiment with different postures and such, too, maybe one would work better than another for your challenges. Good luck! It's worth sticking with.

fivebells

ThomB said:

Five bells, just breathing and being.

I used to have the same problem when meditating. It was caused by anxiety. You might try metta meditation. More metta.

"Just breathing and being" is actually a very advanced practice. Too advanced for me most of the time, and I've been meditating seriously for 12 years.

how

It doesn't take long before unusual and meditation stop ending up sharing the same sentence.
My sympathies for your physical discomfort.
2 small tips that have sometime helped me with meditation..

(1) Meditation can be easier to relax into when understanding there is never a better state to meditate in than the one we are experiencing at this moment.

(2) The quicker we can let go of the judging our own meditation, the quicker it can resume being meditation.

Barra

You didn't mention pain associated with this particular incident, just noise. In my Soro Zen tradition the advice we are given is to move our attention from the visual to the aural. We sit facing the wall, to avoid visual stimulation, and make ourselves open to the various noises in the environment. The sounds that your body makes are no doubt familiar to you, so when this happens just recognize it as part of yourself. "Oh yeah, there it is, I know that one." Then go back to following your breathing.

lobster

Also any positive energy that could be sent my way would be appreciated.

I will be sending good will and chanting merit shortly. Many thanks for the opportunity. If the stomach growls, growl back . . . come to think of it the stomach already is . . .

Beej

with your condition, you arent permitted to eat anything acidic, right? that is difficult, but are you following the doctor's suggestions/directions? i also have some health issues that are highlighted in meditation, but my doctor (a homeopathic dr) who is also a practicing buddhist suggested that if i cant ignore my bad back or enflamed cyst while meditating, that i should instead specifically focus on the ailments, while still maintaining a consistent breath rate. he suggested that this could actually help to "burn up" the problem, or help to diffuse its control on your moment to moment existance. guess what? i found that it is extremely helpful.

genkaku

At a Zen center I once attended, there was a fellow who farted. They were not polite, little silent-but-deadly farts but positively symphonic. There we'd be, forty or fifty people sitting still and silent and (hopefully) attentive when, as if out of nowhere, there would be this silence-rending, Homeric faaarrrrrrrrrtttt!

At first, it was like being back in the third grade and you might try not to giggle. Then, as the giggles wore off, the mind would tut-tut with thin-lipped, etiquette-demanding disapproval. And only in the end did those farts seem to contribute a real liveliness to the attention we were all supposed to be paying: Since you couldn't not pay attention, pay attention ... which was what you were trying to do in the first place.

how

On Genkaku's say so, somewhere in North America in a progressive Zendo, an Ino's zafus is being swapped for a whoopie cushion.

I do remember one sitting following the consumsion of a methane producing vegatarian chilli where all of the most serious Zen adherents you could imagine did return to the 3rd grade.
I still can't remember it without joining them there.

Citta

Blazing Zendos ?