Meditation for the troubled mind
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
Transforming Problems Into Happiness ...Teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Introduction
It is very important to think in detail of the benefit of problems, since this is the main
method of generating with increasingly greater strength and determination the thought
of liking that which is generally regarded as miserable. Recognizing undesirable
situations as desirable is one of the most powerful thought-training practices you can
do. This is the way to transform suffering into happiness. In the meditation below,
there are a number of ways to meditate on transforming problems into happiness. You
can use each of them briefly in a single session, or just focus on one technique and
spend time with it, using different techniques each time you do the meditation.
Comments
Since problems are only in the mind and happiness is only in the mind, if you look at them as both being of the mind, is there any difference?
The difference it would seem is that a so-called problem is something which tends sticks in the mind, disrupting its flow, in a persistent ruminating way, by charming the mind's awareness, demanding its full attention ...AKA Dukkha...
Whereas happiness (in its true sense/form ...a sense of well being ) does not cling nor does it demand, it tends to flow uninterrupted, allowed to run its course so to speak...AKA Sukha
I guess this is why it's important to grease the mind's axle through meditation, enabling it to flow more freely...
And.......according to ~Bodhidharma~
"The most essential method which includes all other methods is to behold the Mind..The Mind is the root from which all things grow..If you can understand the Mind...Everything else is included" (including problems and their solutions...)
In "Transforming Problems Into Happiness" ...Lama Zopa Rinpoche is just showing how one can product the self lubricant which enables our minds to flow more freely...
Well this is the plan and I'm non-sticking to it
Thanks @Shoshin
Emptying is a key word for me.
The first phase of meditation is confrontation/exposure/realisation that we are 'shit for brains'/dukkhad.
The idea that nothing happens in meditation is simply not true. Everything that we are really avoiding is present.
Turning agitation, unsettled into a means is skilful. It is proactive.
Meditation is important to return to, and I enjoyed Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s short tract. It was refreshing, and sometimes when you can go along with someone else’s thoughts it can lead you to some new spaces.
For me in meditation I often return to feeling what is around the body, a kind of energy sensing. It distracts me away from the breath, which very quickly settles into a deep rhythm.
I too felt it was a useful/skilful tract. Deep rhythm breathing is a settling, something most of us with regular practice should eventually become familiar with ...
It’s important imo to remember that while all things might be Mind ultimately, we in the meantime are experiencing the world through bodies. Very often it is the physical that needs to be our jumping off point..and yes Yoga Nidra and Pranayama can be just the ticket.
We are the whole ... or hole in my case ...
Is it too much trouble to move towards a less troubled life? [big clue right there]
Who is under the spell of their trouble?
The trou bled mind is emptied.
Great teachings exist in dharma. See above.
Today I sprayed some plants with garlic water. To deter vampires and slugs/snails.
In a similar way we grow out of dukkha by being covered in troubled intensity redirected ...
I knew there was a plan ...