Freeing onesself of a sense of responsibility and duty
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
I was doing a little meditating before going to bed last night, and I was reminded of a sensation I had had earlier in the day. It was a sensation of a deep sense of responsibility with respect to my upcoming house move. So in meditation I was examining this, and it seemed to lead me to a place on my forehead where there was something dark embedded. I entered a kind of question-and-answer session, which sometimes happens to me, and I asked, where did this deep responsibility come from? The answer was, duty. My question was, duty to what? Duty to be useful.
At this point what arose in me was a kind of cascade. First there was the idea that my ultimate purpose inside myself was to be, to celebrate my Buddha nature. Then there came the thought that this was incompatible with being “useful” internally. This ultimately led to the dark patch in my forehead being dissolved, and something said “he is an eagle! He is finally working correctly”, and there was a sensation of lightness and a kind of release on the left hand side of my head.
I thought I would share this today, it is an example of what one can encounter in meditation in terms of old assumptions which lay buried inside, and that sometimes you need to realise that the social imperatives need to be relegated in favour of inner celebration. Society in many ways tries to enslave you, fit you as a cog into its machinery, but in living the holy life such bonds need to be shed.
Comments
There are many ways that we can have responsibility, not just in economic terms. So I would caution against taking freeing yourself from a sense of responsibility too far.
Responsibility gives meaning and energy to life.
https://www.liveyourtruestory.com/how-being-responsible-can-change-your-life-meaningful/
https://www.thriveglobal.com/stories/22376-9-ways-to-take-responsibility-for-your-life
And meaning seems to matter more than happiness in life
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-differences-between-happiness-and-meaning-in-life/
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/meaning-is-healthier-than-happiness/278250/
You think?
You meditate? When did this start? I thought you just mused ...
[too wikid?]
https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/mindfulness-buddhism/
... and now back to ... 'freedom' ...
I can’t help it @lobster, stuff just comes up! Some days it is properly thoughtless meditation, and some days it keeps coming. I’m sure you’re not easily rid of dreams of fish...
And while I agree one shouldn’t eliminate responsibility from thinking, it doesn’t belong in the energetic experience of the body.
Can you articulate that any further? I'm not really sure what that means.
Well, sometimes during meditation I have ‘tactile experiences’, as if I can feel an energy body in and around my physical body. I tend not to take it too seriously, just try to resist the impulse to play with it, sit back and let it pass. But I have tentatively assigned it a meaning, it seems to be the subtle body.
It does seem to respond to my thoughts and attention, and i’ve had sensations ranging from something stroking the top of my head to an energetic ‘sock’ being fitted around my left foot. It all seems to be related to pulses of energy which manifest as various types of tingling that I feel streaming through parts of my body from time to time. Usually when I don’t meditate it goes away.
Sometimes when I encounter this I get audible phrases and sensations arising which seem to be in sync with eachother. This time it was the “dark patch in my forehead”, the dissolution of which has caused a bunch of changes which were noticeable in a later meditation session.
Anyhoo... I hope that’s clear. It’s a bit of an unusual phenomenon.
Your response @Kerome proves you are not meditating.
I have no idea what you think meditation is?
What on earth are you doing? Is it some Bog1 RajNietzsche spituality [sic]
[full disclosure, I did not watch the video for more than a few seconds, ANY guru who lets a student talk in theatrics, is a ... ] edited for right speech practice
Have I gone wrong again?
Usually I just stick with vipassana, but sometimes there is a little wandering.