Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
How do I experience what I read in a book?
Simplify
Veteran
I am new to this. Specifically I am reading the book : Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. Also I have started meditating for 20 minutes a day, and with a shambalah group twice a week.
Intellectually I understand that fear causes ignorance and strife. I have even directly observed this, and can recall the memory.
Trungpa talks about gentleness, softness and sadness as a way to go beyond fear. That at the root of fear is sadness, and that if you can experience this, you can be tender and gentle instead of fearful. I have not clearly experienced this, but perhaps slightly.
Say I want to explore this more - do I then examine what makes me afraid, seek that out (something safe - not jumping off bridges or anything), and then carefully observe? What about just imagining a scary situation, and observing my response?
And then the reaction - do I purposefully seek to experience that gentle tender brave sadness, or do I just observe fear and see what I find?
Or am I thinking about this in a totally wrong way?
Any thoughts are appreciated.
Intellectually I understand that fear causes ignorance and strife. I have even directly observed this, and can recall the memory.
Trungpa talks about gentleness, softness and sadness as a way to go beyond fear. That at the root of fear is sadness, and that if you can experience this, you can be tender and gentle instead of fearful. I have not clearly experienced this, but perhaps slightly.
Say I want to explore this more - do I then examine what makes me afraid, seek that out (something safe - not jumping off bridges or anything), and then carefully observe? What about just imagining a scary situation, and observing my response?
And then the reaction - do I purposefully seek to experience that gentle tender brave sadness, or do I just observe fear and see what I find?
Or am I thinking about this in a totally wrong way?
Any thoughts are appreciated.
0
Comments
You can do what you're proposing, here. However, you will find it a lot easier if you first develop a solid foundation in basic meditation.
So what do you consider a solid foundation? Do you measure it with the amount of time between thoughts? Is there some quality of mind that becomes apparent as a benchmark?
What makes one experience "good" and another "bad?" We tend to fear what we think might be bad, while we seek out experiences we think of as good. It's simply human nature, nothing to be taken all too seriously. When I realize I feel afraid, I smile. I breathe deeply, and stop to look at the situation more objectively. Fear is something you do, not something you are. It isn't real. It's just an emotion, like a cloud passing through the sky. The biggest mistake we tend to make is being afraid of fear. That is almost always what fear really is, anyway. How silly we are!
It is not that we force aside our emotions, stamp them out, or lock them away. Nothing of the kind. Our meditation training makes us stronger, less prone to distraction, and less susceptible to harmful emotions, but it does not make us immune. With patience, however, gently recognizing our human frailties, we can step outside whatever we happen to be feeling and go on, anyway. That is what courage is all about.
It refers to the mind that has relinquished self clinging (empty heart), to the mind that has comprehended impermanence and to the mind that has comprehended the suffering of the world & the causes.
From a Bodhisattva point of view, fear can arise when we are unsure or uncertain how to help people. This kind of fear can be overcome by wisdom gained by observation & study.
But the basic or primal spiritual fear comes from loneliness, the fear that arises when we are alone. So the way to overcome this is by spending time alone, in retreat, in the forest, by the sea, etc.
To experience this kind of fear requires nothing complicated on our behalf. Yet it will overcome all fears.
Kind regards
DDhatu