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R A I N
Bunks
Australia Veteran
I have found this acronym quite useful recently when any painful feelings arise.
Step 1 is to stop and Recognise the feeling. Oh yes, this is anger. Pay attention!
Step 2 is to Accept it. I am a human being. This is a human emotion. I will be open to it.
Step 3 is to Investigate. How does this feel in your body? Is it tightness in the chest? Pain in the throat? Continue to investigate it until it has passed.
Final step is to Not identify. There's no need to identify a "me" in this. It was just a passing mental and emotional event.
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Comments
I like that a lot.......I think I'll make a little card I can keep close by (or 2 or 3) with a quick n easy explanation. That's great.
I think I did that in the car today. I had a bit of a meltdown on the way to Officeworks over impending bills vs lack of money and by the time I got to the car park there I was wiping away tears. I looked at myself in the mirror and said out loud "Well there's f**k all I can do about it so they just have to wait". Once I took the onus off "me" I could go inside in a fairly calm state (it also helped I was not using my credit card to buy stock for work).
_ /\ _
This is what I came up with:
When painful feelings arise,
Recognize (identify) the feeling: attention.
Accept and be open to my human feelings.
Investigate. Look for accompanying sensations.
Not identify with it…this too shall pass.
[I bolded the R-A-I-N but it doesn't show up here.]
(Heh heh heh...it does when a Mod intervenes...
)
Yes, I first came across this some years ago, it's a useful approach. The 4th one is easier said than done though!
Do you use it, and if so do you work specifically through the stages or just have it in the background?
. . . first the reign of King Mind . . . then the dance
. . . and now back to the sunshine, rain, rainbows, pot of gold, dukkha, karma, have a nice day etc . . .
The first I heard of this was from a book by Tara Brach (she's a psychotherapist and meditation teacher on the east coast). RAIN was kind of a revelation to me, that I could take a very painful or uncomfortable 'feeling' and examine it, make sense of it and diminish the pain.
Some things, when I first tried it, were 'too big' and so I wrote it out. After that the process is more familiar and it can be more 'background'.
Doing R A I is the 'easy' part . . . like everyone else, it's the N that still boggles sometimes.
I find that the best way to NOT identify with an emotion, is to give it an Identity of its own.... Rather like TNH does....
"Hello 'Anger', my you are a feisty one... tell me, what are you doing here today?
Why have you decided to call by?"
Or -
"Good morning, 'Sadness'...I'm sorry you feel this way...tell me, what prompts your presence?"
It's a helpful way to put a little 'distance' between 'me' and 'non-me'....
Yes, indeed. I haven't found this to be something I can think through, it's practising and developing a more spacious mind so these things don't feel so big and overwhelming. Putting more space around them sort of.
Yes. I've found that how I label things can be quite significant, eg just "anxiety", rather than "my anxiety" or "I'm feeling anxious" or whatever.
Hey well, at least I can quote myself! Thanks, o mighty mod.
I was using my 'RAIN' card a short bit ago and saw fit to change the 'N' to Not identify with it and release it....because I got a bit misty when I remembered that my grandmother especially, would say that rather often, and I think the new phrase isn't attached to something I may tend to get emotional over - but it's all part of the practice, I guess. I like the idea of releasing - as opposed to 'get over it' or something like that. I think of releasing birds from a cage....visuals are important.
Glad you're getting something out of it @silver.
I have used it over the last few days with anger, frustration, lust and pride (yes, pride). I had my ego boosted at work yesterday and was feeling pretty darn good about myself until I remembered RAIN!
I find that in my deepest darkest sorrows is when the most letting go takes place. Mellow as can be far from movement no bodily pain found that can hurt. If I stream it comes out as tears, if I am angry it comes out as tears. As if no longer hundred by the bodies needs or the thought of constant amusement. For I am sad and the hungry world cannot change that. Somehow someway it is this frustrated emotional state that allows a free of delusion day and gives hope for tomorrow
Please pardon the spelling. Its very unfortunate but I carry a lot of wrath and have down graded myself to a tablet which isn't user friendly.
Outstanding policy.
In particular ref to step three. It is much easier to deal with 'butterflies in the stomach', 'pain in the neck', 'weak in the knees', 'tight in the chest' etc.
This is where the return to the calm breath, visualisation and practice comes in . . .
I also find the R and the A quite useful during placement (e.g. breath) meditation.
RECOGNISE that the mind has wandered.
ACCEPT it without judgement and come back to the placement object.
Good point, it applies to meditation too.
@Bunks ...
A time must come when It never rains but it POURS
Persistent Observation Ultimately Revoke Samsara
Persistent= Keep chipping away at the illusion
By continuous =Observation
Will =Ultimately
Revoke= Negates
The cycle of birth & death =Samsara
How about UMBRELLA? RAINCOAT? PUDDLE?
I eagerly await the acronyms to learn and apply!